/*
 * Copyright 2011 JBoss, by Red Hat, Inc
 *
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */

package org.jboss.errai.ioc.client.api;

import java.lang.annotation.ElementType;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;
import java.lang.annotation.Target;

/**
 * Defines a top-level provider for the IOC Container. Top-level providers are a special feature of the container
 * used for defining injectable beans which are available anywhere within the container, from any scope, at any
 * point of the runtime lifecycle.
 * <p>
 * Top-level providers are used for defining framework-level features such as support for injecting instances of
 * the <tt>MessageBus</tt> or the RPC <tt>Callable</tt> interface.
 * <p>
 * The production of top-level providers are <em>not</em> managed beans. But the instances of the top-level providers
 * are themselves, managed and are scopable. Thus, all top-level providers that do not declare an explicit scope are
 * of the <em>pseudo-dependant scope</em> and are instantiated prior to all invocations of the provider.
 * <p>
 * Classes which are annotated with <tt>@IOCProvider</tt> MUST implement either:
 * <ul>
 *   <li>{@link javax.inject.Provider}</li>
 *   <li>{@link ContextualTypeProvider}</li>
 * </ul>
 *
 */
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
@Target(ElementType.TYPE)
public @interface IOCProvider {
}
