<!-- * utilities-classes.html * * Authors: Michael Daigle * Copyright: 2009 Regents of the University of California and the * National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis * For Details: http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/ * Created: 2009 January 19 * Version: * File Info: '$ ' * * --> <html> <head> <title>Metacat Utilities Classes</title> <!-- unfortunately, we have to look for the common css file in the user docs directory. This is because the user docs deploy to the top level of the metacat docs on the knb web server --> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="../user/common.css"> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="./default.css"> </head> <body> <table class="tabledefault" width="100%"> <tr> <td rowspan="2"><img src="./images/KNBLogo.gif"></td> <td colspan="7"><div class="title">KNB Software Development Guide: Metacat Utilities Classes</div></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="/" class="toollink"> KNB Home </a></td> <td><a href="/data.html" class="toollink"> Data </a></td> <td><a href="/people.html" class="toollink"> People </a></td> <td><a href="/informatics" class="toollink"> Informatics </a></td> <td><a href="/biodiversity" class="toollink"> Biocomplexity </a></td> <td><a href="/education" class="toollink"> Education </a></td> <td><a href="/software" class="toollink"> Software </a></td> </tr> </table> <br> <table width="100%"> <tr> <td class="tablehead" colspan="2"><p class="label">Metacat Utilities Classes</p></td> <td class="tablehead" colspan="2" align="right"> <a href="service-base.html">Back</a> | <a href="./index.html">Home</a> | <!-- a href="add next file here when one exists" -->Next<!-- /a --> </td> </tr> </table> <div class="header1">Table of Contents</div> <div class="toc"> <div class="toc1"><a href="#Overview">Overview</a></div> </div> <a name="Overview"></a><div class="header1">UtiltiesOverview</div> <p>Metacat contains its own utilities classes (as opposed to the utilities classes available in the generic utilities module). These utilities classes provide services that are specific to Metacat. Some of the properties that typify a utility are:</p> <ul> <li>Static methods - all methods are called statically.</li> <li>No state - there are no state variables in a utility.</li> <li>Return UtilException on error - this should be the only checked exception that gets thrown</li> </ul> <p/> If state becomes an issue, you may want to use a service class to provide the functionality you need. See the <a href="./service-base.html">Metacat Service Based Architecture page</a> for more information on services.</p> <br> <a href="service-base.html">Back</a> | <a href="./index.html">Home</a> | <!-- a href="add next file here when one exists" -->Next<!-- /a --> </ul> </body> </html>