--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/api/Factories/AbstractWarFoundryFactory.cs	Fri Dec 19 15:57:51 2008 +0000
@@ -0,0 +1,73 @@
+// AbstractWarFoundryFactory.cs
+//
+//  Copyright (C) 2008 IBBoard
+//
+// This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
+// modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
+// License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
+// version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
+//
+// This library 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 the GNU
+// Lesser General Public License for more details.
+//
+// You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
+// License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
+// Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA 
+//
+//
+
+using System;
+using System.IO;
+using System.Collections.Generic;
+using IBBoard.WarFoundry.API.Objects;
+
+namespace IBBoard.WarFoundry.API.Factories
+{
+	public abstract class AbstractWarFoundryFactory<FILE_TYPE> : IWarFoundryFactory
+	{
+		public bool CanHandleFileFormat (FileInfo file)
+		{
+			return CheckCanHandleFileFormat(GetFileAsSupportedType(file));
+		}
+		
+		/// <summary>
+		/// Converts the <see cref="FileInfo"/> object in to the appropriate type for this class so that it can perform its checks. If no conversion is required (the test can be performed on a <see cref="FileInfo"/> object) the object should be returned with no modification. 
+		/// </summary>
+		/// <param name="file">
+		/// A <see cref="FileInfo"/> to get the supported source object from.
+		/// </param>
+		/// <returns>
+		/// An object of type <see cref="FILE_TYPE"/> that has been converted from the input <see cref="FileInfo"/> object, or <code>null</code> if the conversion cannot be made.
+		/// </returns>
+		protected abstract FILE_TYPE GetFileAsSupportedType(FileInfo file);
+		
+		/// <summary>
+		/// Checks whether the factory thinks it can load data from the file in its paramaterised type.
+		/// </summary>
+		/// <param name="file">
+		/// An object of the converted <see cref="FILE_TYPE"/> to check support for
+		/// </param>
+		/// <returns>
+		/// <code>true</code> if the factory thinks it can support the file, else <code>false</code>
+		/// </returns>
+		protected abstract bool CheckCanHandleFileFormat(FILE_TYPE file);
+		
+		public ICollection<IWarFoundryObject> CreateObjectsFromFile(FileInfo file)
+		{
+			return DoCreateObjectsFromFile(GetFileAsSupportedType(file));
+		}
+		
+		/// <summary>
+		/// Reads the data from the supplied converted <see cref="FILE_TYPE"/> object and returns it as a collection of loadable objects.
+		/// </summary>
+		/// <param name="file">
+		/// An object of the converted <see cref="FILE_TYPE"/> for the file to load data from
+		/// </param>
+		/// <returns>
+		/// A <see cref="ICollection`1"/> of <see cref="IWarFoundryObject"/>s that were loaded from the file object
+		/// </returns>
+		protected abstract ICollection<IWarFoundryObject> DoCreateObjectsFromFile(FILE_TYPE file);
+	}
+}