/*
 * Copyright (c) OSGi Alliance (2016). All Rights Reserved.
 *
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */
package org.osgi.converter;

import java.lang.reflect.Type;

import org.osgi.annotation.versioning.ProviderType;

/**
 * This interface is used to specify the target that an object should be
 * converted to. A {@link Converting} instance can be obtained via the
 * {@link Converter} service by starting a conversion for a specific object.
 *
 * @author $Id$
 * @ThreadSafe
 */
@ProviderType
public interface Converting {
	/**
	 * The default value to use when the object cannot be converted or in case
	 * of conversion from a {@code null} value.
	 * 
	 * @param defVal The default value.
	 * @return The current {@code Converting} object so that additional calls
	 *         can be chained.
	 */
	Converting defaultValue(Object defVal);

	/**
	 * Specify the target object type for the conversion as a class object.
	 *
	 * @param cls The class to convert to.
	 * @return The converted object.
	 */
	<T> T to(Class<T> cls);

	/**
	 * Specify the target object type as a {@link TypeReference}. If the target
	 * class carries generics information a TypeReference should be used as this
	 * preserves the generic information whereas a Class object has this
	 * information erased. Example use:
	 *
	 * <pre>
	 * List&lt;String&gt; result = converter.convert(Arrays.asList(1, 2, 3))
	 * 		.to(new TypeReference&lt;List&lt;String&gt;&gt;() {});
	 * </pre>
	 *
	 * @param ref A type reference to the object being converted to.
	 * @return The converted object.
	 */
	<T> T to(TypeReference<T> ref);

	/**
	 * Specify the target object type as a Java Reflection Type object.
	 *
	 * @param type A Type object to represent the target type to be converted
	 *            to.
	 * @return The converted object.
	 */
	Object to(Type type);

	/**
	 * Same as {@code to(String.class)}.
	 * 
	 * @return The converted object.
	 */
	@Override
	String toString();
}

@@ -1040,16 +1040,442 @@
 rting %7B%0A
+%09/**%0A%09 * Convert the source object based on rules for the class being passed in.%0A%09 * This method can be used to disambiguate objects that would match multiple%0A%09 * conversion rules.%0A%09 * %0A%09 * @param type The type or class to be used as the source type for the%0A%09 *            conversion%0A%09 * @return The current %7B@code Converting%7D object so that additional calls%0A%09 *         can be chained.%0A%09 */%0A%09Converting as(Class%3C ? %3E type);%0A%0A
 %09/**%0A%09 *
@@ -1547,16 +1547,16 @@
 in case%0A
-
 %09 * of c
@@ -1592,20 +1592,19 @@
  value.%0A
+
 %09 *
- 
 %0A%09 * @pa
@@ -2817,25 +2817,24 @@
 class)%7D.%0A%09 *
- 
 %0A%09 * @return

Add as() to Converter API