EObject

EObject is the root interface for all modeled objects in the Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF). It defines a minimal, uniform API that enables reflection, dynamic feature access, and integration with EMF’s containment and persistence mechanisms. Most EMF-generated model classes implement EObject either directly or via a generated base class, and instances are created by factory methods and may be contained within EMF Resources.

Key capabilities of EObject include its support for reflective access to an object's type and features. The eClass method returns the meta-object (an EClass) describing the object's type. Feature access is provided through eGet, eSet, eIsSet, and eUnset, which allow reading and modifying features by their feature IDs or by structural features. EObject also participates in the containment hierarchy via eContainer and can reference the resource it belongs to through eResource. Directly containing elements can be enumerated with eContents, and deeper traversal is possible with eAllContents.

EObject inherits from Notifier, enabling a notification mechanism through adapters. Methods such as eAdapters and eNotify facilitate listening for changes, which is central to EMF’s data binding and editing support.

Usage of EObject often appears in more dynamic or reflective code, where features are accessed without compile-time knowledge of their types. It also underpins interoperability between generated models and dynamic EMF models, where models are described or manipulated at runtime rather than generated from a static schema.

In summary, EObject provides the core runtime interface for all EMF objects, supporting type introspection, feature manipulation, containment, resource association, and change notification within the EMF ecosystem.