/*
 * #%L
 * SciJava Common shared library for SciJava software.
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 * Wisconsin-Madison, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Max Planck
 * Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, University of
 * Konstanz, and KNIME GmbH.
 * %%
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 * 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice,
 *    this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
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 * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS"
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 */

package org.scijava.plugin;

/**
 * Interface for plugins which "handle" a particular subset of data objects. A
 * handler plugin is a {@link SingletonPlugin} associated with a specific data
 * type (i.e., implementing {@link TypedPlugin}).
 * <p>
 * For a given data object (of type {@code D}), the {@code HandlerPlugin}
 * declares whether it can handle that data object via the {@link #supports}
 * method. The plugin's associated {@link HandlerService#getHandler} method then
 * uses this capability to determine the most appropriate handler for any given
 * data object.
 * </p>
 * <p>
 * Note that there is no single {@code handle(D)} method for actually handling
 * data objects, because it would be rather inflexible; e.g., handlers may have
 * other required inputs, or may provide more than one possible avenue of
 * handling (i.e., more than one "handle"-style method).
 * </p>
 * 
 * @author Curtis Rueden
 * @param <D> Data type associated with the plugin.
 * @see HandlerService
 */
public interface HandlerPlugin<D> extends SingletonPlugin, TypedPlugin<D> {
	// NB: Marker interface.
}
