The Dictionary OSID manages key/value pairs. A key and a value may be of an arbitrary type. Dictionaries may be used to support a Locale or Configuration OSID, or may be used to provide any dynamic translation or conversion. The Dictionary OSID is a powerful tool for abstracting and simplifying applications and other OSID implementations.

Entries

An Entry is indexed by a key and may contain multiple values of different types. The key, key type, and value type must be unique. The interpretation of the value and key are specified through the value type and key type.

Dictionary

Entries may be organized into federatable OsidCatalogs called Dictionaries.

Basic Example:

                         
                         
                         EntryLookupSession lookupSession = mgr.getEntryLookupSession();
                         string definition = (string) lookupSession.getEntry("gambrel", strType, strType);
                         
                                 
                         
                    

Federated Example:

                         
                         
                         DictionaryLookupSession dictLookupSession = mgr.getDictionaryLookupSession();
                         Dictionary dict = dictLookupSession.getDictionary(dict_id);
                         EntryLookupSession lookupSession = mgr.getEntryLookupSessionForDictionary(dict);
                         JpegImage jpg = lookupSession.getEntry(tiffImage, tiffType, jpegType);