/*

 * Copyright (c) 2006, 2011, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

 * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.

 *

 * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it

 * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as

 * published by the Free Software Foundation.  Oracle designates this

 * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided

 * by Oracle in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code.

 *

 * This code 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 General Public License

 * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that

 * accompanied this code).

 *

 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version

 * 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,

 * Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.

 *

 * Please contact Oracle, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065 USA

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 */

package javax.xml.bind.annotation;

import javax.xml.bind.JAXBContext;

import java.lang.annotation.ElementType;

import java.lang.annotation.Retention;

import static java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME;

import java.lang.annotation.Target;

/**

 * Instructs JAXB to also bind other classes when binding this class.

 *

 * <p>

 * Java makes it impractical/impossible to list all sub-classes of

 * a given class. This often gets in a way of JAXB users, as it JAXB

 * cannot automatically list up the classes that need to be known

 * to {@link JAXBContext}.

 *

 * <p>

 * For example, with the following class definitions:

 *

 * <pre>

 * class Animal {}

 * class Dog extends Animal {}

 * class Cat extends Animal {}

 * </pre>

 *

 * <p>

 * The user would be required to create {@link JAXBContext} as

 * <tt>JAXBContext.newInstance(Dog.class,Cat.class)</tt>

 * (<tt>Animal</tt> will be automatically picked up since <tt>Dog</tt>

 * and <tt>Cat</tt> refers to it.)

 *

 * <p>

 * {@link XmlSeeAlso} annotation would allow you to write:

 * <pre>

 * @XmlSeeAlso({Dog.class,Cat.class})

 * class Animal {}

 * class Dog extends Animal {}

 * class Cat extends Animal {}

 * </pre>

 *

 * <p>

 * This would allow you to do <tt>JAXBContext.newInstance(Animal.class)</tt>.

 * By the help of this annotation, JAXB implementations will be able to

 * correctly bind <tt>Dog</tt> and <tt>Cat</tt>.

 *

 * @author Kohsuke Kawaguchi

 * @since JAXB2.1

 */

@Target({ElementType.TYPE})

@Retention(RUNTIME)

public @interface XmlSeeAlso {

    Class[] value();

}