/*
 * Copyright (c) 2000 World Wide Web Consortium,
 * (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Institut National de
 * Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique, Keio University). All
 * Rights Reserved. This program is distributed under the W3C's Software
 * Intellectual Property License. This program 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 W3C License http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ for more details.
 */

package org.w3c.dom;

/**
 * The <code>CharacterData</code> interface extends Node with a set of 
 * attributes and methods for accessing character data in the DOM. For 
 * clarity this set is defined here rather than on each object that uses 
 * these attributes and methods. No DOM objects correspond directly to 
 * <code>CharacterData</code>, though <code>Text</code> and others do 
 * inherit the interface from it. All <code>offsets</code> in this interface 
 * start from <code>0</code>.
 * <p>As explained in the <code>DOMString</code> interface, text strings in 
 * the DOM are represented in UTF-16, i.e. as a sequence of 16-bit units. In 
 * the following, the term 16-bit units is used whenever necessary to 
 * indicate that indexing on CharacterData is done in 16-bit units.
 * <p>See also the <a href='http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Core-20001113'>Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 Core Specification</a>.
 */
public interface CharacterData extends Node {
    /**
     * The character data of the node that implements this interface. The DOM 
     * implementation may not put arbitrary limits on the amount of data 
     * that may be stored in a <code>CharacterData</code> node. However, 
     * implementation limits may mean that the entirety of a node's data may 
     * not fit into a single <code>DOMString</code>. In such cases, the user 
     * may call <code>substringData</code> to retrieve the data in 
     * appropriately sized pieces.
     * @exception DOMException
     *   NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised when the node is readonly.
     * @exception DOMException
     *   DOMSTRING_SIZE_ERR: Raised when it would return more characters than 
     *   fit in a <code>DOMString</code> variable on the implementation 
     *   platform.
     */
    public String getData()
                            throws DOMException;
    /**
     * The character data of the node that implements this interface. The DOM 
     * implementation may not put arbitrary limits on the amount of data 
     * that may be stored in a <code>CharacterData</code> node. However, 
     * implementation limits may mean that the entirety of a node's data may 
     * not fit into a single <code>DOMString</code>. In such cases, the user 
     * may call <code>substringData</code> to retrieve the data in 
     * appropriately sized pieces.
     * @exception DOMException
     *   NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised when the node is readonly.
     * @exception DOMException
     *   DOMSTRING_SIZE_ERR: Raised when it would return more characters than 
     *   fit in a <code>DOMString</code> variable on the implementation 
     *   platform.
     */
    public void setData(String data)
                            throws DOMException;

    /**
     * The number of 16-bit units that are available through <code>data</code> 
     * and the <code>substringData</code> method below. This may have the 
     * value zero, i.e., <code>CharacterData</code> nodes may be empty.
     */
    public int getLength();

    /**
     * Extracts a range of data from the node.
     * @param offset Start offset of substring to extract.
     * @param count The number of 16-bit units to extract.
     * @return The specified substring. If the sum of <code>offset</code> and 
     *   <code>count</code> exceeds the <code>length</code>, then all 16-bit 
     *   units to the end of the data are returned.
     * @exception DOMException
     *   INDEX_SIZE_ERR: Raised if the specified <code>offset</code> is 
     *   negative or greater than the number of 16-bit units in 
     *   <code>data</code>, or if the specified <code>count</code> is 
     *   negative.
     *   <br>DOMSTRING_SIZE_ERR: Raised if the specified range of text does 
     *   not fit into a <code>DOMString</code>.
     */
    public String substringData(int offset, 
                                int count)
                                throws DOMException;

    /**
     * Append the string to the end of the character data of the node. Upon 
     * success, <code>data</code> provides access to the concatenation of 
     * <code>data</code> and the <code>DOMString</code> specified.
     * @param arg The <code>DOMString</code> to append.
     * @exception DOMException
     *   NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node is readonly.
     */
    public void appendData(String arg)
                           throws DOMException;

    /**
     * Insert a string at the specified 16-bit unit offset.
     * @param offset The character offset at which to insert.
     * @param arg The <code>DOMString</code> to insert.
     * @exception DOMException
     *   INDEX_SIZE_ERR: Raised if the specified <code>offset</code> is 
     *   negative or greater than the number of 16-bit units in 
     *   <code>data</code>.
     *   <br>NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node is readonly.
     */
    public void insertData(int offset, 
                           String arg)
                           throws DOMException;

    /**
     * Remove a range of 16-bit units from the node. Upon success, 
     * <code>data</code> and <code>length</code> reflect the change.
     * @param offset The offset from which to start removing.
     * @param count The number of 16-bit units to delete. If the sum of 
     *   <code>offset</code> and <code>count</code> exceeds 
     *   <code>length</code> then all 16-bit units from <code>offset</code> 
     *   to the end of the data are deleted.
     * @exception DOMException
     *   INDEX_SIZE_ERR: Raised if the specified <code>offset</code> is 
     *   negative or greater than the number of 16-bit units in 
     *   <code>data</code>, or if the specified <code>count</code> is 
     *   negative.
     *   <br>NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node is readonly.
     */
    public void deleteData(int offset, 
                           int count)
                           throws DOMException;

    /**
     * Replace the characters starting at the specified 16-bit unit offset 
     * with the specified string.
     * @param offset The offset from which to start replacing.
     * @param count The number of 16-bit units to replace. If the sum of 
     *   <code>offset</code> and <code>count</code> exceeds 
     *   <code>length</code>, then all 16-bit units to the end of the data 
     *   are replaced; (i.e., the effect is the same as a <code>remove</code>
     *    method call with the same range, followed by an <code>append</code>
     *    method invocation).
     * @param arg The <code>DOMString</code> with which the range must be 
     *   replaced.
     * @exception DOMException
     *   INDEX_SIZE_ERR: Raised if the specified <code>offset</code> is 
     *   negative or greater than the number of 16-bit units in 
     *   <code>data</code>, or if the specified <code>count</code> is 
     *   negative.
     *   <br>NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this node is readonly.
     */
    public void replaceData(int offset, 
                            int count, 
                            String arg)
                            throws DOMException;

}
