org.biojava.bio.program.formats
Class FormatTools

java.lang.Object
  extended by org.biojava.bio.program.formats.FormatTools

public class FormatTools
extends Object


Field Summary
static ChangeTable.Changer EC_FROM_STRING
           
 
Method Summary
static Format getFormat(String formatName)
          Attempt to find aformat for a format identifer string.
 
Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object
clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait
 

Field Detail

EC_FROM_STRING

public static final ChangeTable.Changer EC_FROM_STRING
Method Detail

getFormat

public static Format getFormat(String formatName)
                        throws BioException
Attempt to find aformat for a format identifer string.

The string will be resolved in the following way:

  1. Treat the name as an LSID and search for a format class with that LSID.
  2. Load a class of that name
  3. Load a class in the package org.biojava.bio.program.formats with that name
  4. Load a class in that package after replacing each '.' in the name with "$" so that a search is made of inner classes.

It is not specified if the format returned is a new instance or not.

Parameters:
formatName - the Stirng to use to find the format name
Returns:
a Format for that name
Throws:
BioException - if the format could not be resolved for some reason
For advanced users:
This method uses the service providor framework to find format providers. If you add formats to the core biojava distribution, you must add the class name to the file biojava-live/resources/META-INF/services/org.biojava.bio.program.formats.Format/ If you implement formats and place them in your own .jar files, you should put the class name in a similarly named file in your jar. This should mean that the format becomes automatically registered with the system.