package jalview.io;

import jalview.datamodel.AlignmentI;

import java.io.IOException;

public interface FileFormatI
{

  AlignmentFileI getAlignmentFile(String inFile, DataSourceType sourceType)
          throws IOException;

  // TODO can we get rid of one of these methods?
  AlignmentFileI getAlignmentFile(FileParse source) throws IOException;

  AlignmentFileI getAlignmentFile(AlignmentI al);

  AlignmentFileI getAlignmentFile();

  boolean isComplexAlignFile();

  /**
   * Returns a comma-separated list of file extensions associated with the
   * format
   * 
   * @return
   */
  String getExtensions();

  /**
   * Answers true if the format is one that Jalview can read. This implies that
   * the format provides implementations for getAlignmentFile(FileParse) and
   * getAlignmentFile(String, DataSourceType) which parse the data source for
   * sequence data.
   * 
   * @return
   */
  boolean isReadable();

  /**
   * Answers true if the format is one that Jalview can write. This implies that
   * the object returned by getAlignmentFile provides an implementation of the
   * print() method.
   * 
   * @return
   */
  boolean isWritable();

  /**
   * Answers true if the format is one that Jalview can output as text, e.g. to
   * a text box
   * 
   * @return
   */
  boolean isTextFormat();
}