iAnywhere Water System User Manual

Defining interfaces

An interface is a type of class that is similar to a class but which is used to

implement the specification of an abstraction of a class. An interface is a

collection of operations used to specify the externally visible behavior of a

class. It has no implementation of its own.

A class that implements all the operations in an interface is said to realize the

interface. A class that requires one or more operations in an interface is said

to use the interface. The interface includes the signatures of the operations of

the class. Usually, an interface specifies only a limited part of the behavior of

a class. A class can implement one or more interfaces.

The following example shows a Name (interface) that realizes the action

GetName for an Employee (class).

Interface properties

An interface has the following properties:

Property Description

Maximum

length

Name Name of the interface 254

Code Reference name for the interface 254

Comment Descriptive comment for the interface —

Stereotype Subclassification of an interface derived from an

existing one. Extends the semantics of an interface

without changing it's structure

—

Visibility Visibility of the interface, whose value denotes

how it may be seen outside its enclosing name

space

—

Generate Indicates that the class will be automatically

included among the objects generated from the

model when you launch the generation process

—