/*
 * Moonlight|3D Copyright (C) 2005 The Moonlight|3D team
 * 
 * This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
 * the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free
 * Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option)
 * any later version.
 * 
 * This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
 * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS
 * FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU Lesser General Public License for more
 * details.
 * 
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
 * along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
 * 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
 * 
 * Created on Oct 31, 2005
 */
package ml.image;

import ml.core.helper.FileType;
import ml.core.helper.NamedObject;

/**
 * The image format handler interface. This interface provides services
 * needed for loading and saving images of a certain format. All image
 * format handlers implement this interface.
 * 
 * @author gregor
 */
public interface ImageFormat extends NamedObject {
	/**
	 * Return the file type for this image format.
	 * 
	 * @return the FileType describing this image format
	 * @see ml.core.helper.FileType
	 */
	public FileType getFileType();
	
	/**
	 * Returns true if files of this format can be loaded by
	 * this image format handler.
	 * 
	 * @return true if loading is supported.
	 */
	public boolean isLoadable();
	
	/**
	 * Returns true if files of this format can be saved by
	 * this image format handler.
	 * 
	 * @return true if saving is supported.
	 */
	public boolean isSaveable();

	/**
	 * Load an image from the file given by filename and return the
	 * resulting Framebuffer.
	 * 
	 * @param filename the filename of the file to load
	 * @return the framebuffer with the loaded image
	 * @throws ml.core.exceptions.Exception
	 */
	public Framebuffer loadFile(String filename) throws ml.core.exceptions.Exception;
	
	/**
	 * Save the image in the given framebuffer to the file given by filename.
	 * 
	 * @param filename the filename of the file to save the image to
	 * @param buffer the framebuffer to save
	 * @throws ml.core.exceptions.Exception
	 */
	public void saveFile(String filename, Framebuffer buffer) throws ml.core.exceptions.Exception;
}