/*
 * Copyright (c) 2000 World Wide Web Consortium,
 * (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Institut National de
 * Recherche en Informatique et en Automatique, Keio University). All
 * Rights Reserved. This program is distributed under the W3C's Software
 * Intellectual Property License. This program 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 W3C License http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ for more details.
 */

package org.w3c.dom.css;

import org.w3c.dom.DOMException;

/**
 *  The <code>CSSValue</code> interface represents a simple or a complex 
 * value. A <code>CSSValue</code> object only occurs in a context of a CSS 
 * property. 
 * <p>See also the <a href='http://www.w3.org/TR/2000/REC-DOM-Level-2-Style-20001113'>Document Object Model (DOM) Level 2 Style Specification</a>.
 * @since DOM Level 2
 */
public interface CSSValue {
    // UnitTypes
    /**
     * The value is inherited and the <code>cssText</code> contains "inherit".
     */
    public static final short CSS_INHERIT               = 0;
    /**
     * The value is a primitive value and an instance of the 
     * <code>CSSPrimitiveValue</code> interface can be obtained by using 
     * binding-specific casting methods on this instance of the 
     * <code>CSSValue</code> interface.
     */
    public static final short CSS_PRIMITIVE_VALUE       = 1;
    /**
     * The value is a <code>CSSValue</code> list and an instance of the 
     * <code>CSSValueList</code> interface can be obtained by using 
     * binding-specific casting methods on this instance of the 
     * <code>CSSValue</code> interface.
     */
    public static final short CSS_VALUE_LIST            = 2;
    /**
     * The value is a custom value.
     */
    public static final short CSS_CUSTOM                = 3;

    /**
     *  A string representation of the current value. 
     */
    public String getCssText();
    /**
     *  A string representation of the current value. 
     * @exception DOMException
     *    SYNTAX_ERR: Raised if the specified CSS string value has a syntax 
     *   error (according to the attached property) or is unparsable. 
     *   <br>INVALID_MODIFICATION_ERR: Raised if the specified CSS string 
     *   value represents a different type of values than the values allowed 
     *   by the CSS property.
     *   <br> NO_MODIFICATION_ALLOWED_ERR: Raised if this value is readonly. 
     */
    public void setCssText(String cssText)
                       throws DOMException;

    /**
     *  A code defining the type of the value as defined above. 
     */
    public short getCssValueType();

}