org.biojava.bio.program.formats
Class FormatTools

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

public class FormatTools
extends java.lang.Object


Field Summary
static ChangeTable.Changer EC_FROM_STRING
           
 
Method Summary
static Format getFormat(java.lang.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(java.lang.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.

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.

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