1 /*
2 * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
3 * or more contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file
4 * distributed with this work for additional information
5 * regarding copyright ownership. The ASF licenses this file
6 * to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
7 * "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
8 * with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
9 *
10 * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
11 *
12 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
13 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
14 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
15 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
16 * limitations under the License.
17 */
18
19 package net.jini.io;
20
21 import java.util.Collection;
22
23 /**
24 * Provides a collection of context information objects that are
25 * associated with an {@link java.io.ObjectOutputStream} or {@link
26 * java.io.ObjectInputStream} instance that implements this interface.
27 *
28 * <p>The class of an object that is being serialized or deserialized
29 * can test (in its private
30 * <code>writeObject(ObjectOutputStream)</code> or
31 * <code>readObject(ObjectInputStream)</code> method) if the object
32 * stream being used implements this interface. If the stream does
33 * implement this interface, the class can then retrieve context
34 * information relevant to the overall serialization or
35 * deserialization operation by invoking the {@link
36 * #getObjectStreamContext getObjectStreamContext} method and
37 * inspecting the elements of the returned collection.
38 *
39 * <p>The contents of the collection are determined by the
40 * implementation of the object stream. The context information
41 * available from a given element of the collection is determined by
42 * that element's type.
43 *
44 * Examples of types that a context object might implement include
45 * {@link net.jini.io.context.ClientHost} and
46 * {@link net.jini.io.context.ClientSubject}.
47 *
48 * @author Sun Microsystems, Inc.
49 * @since 2.0
50 */
51 public interface ObjectStreamContext {
52
53 /**
54 * Returns this object stream's collection of context information
55 * objects.
56 *
57 * <p>The context information available from a given element of
58 * the collection is determined by that element's type. The order
59 * of the elements is insignificant. The collection may be empty.
60 *
61 * <p>The caller of this method cannot assume that the returned
62 * collection is modifiable.
63 *
64 * @return a collection of this stream's context objects
65 */
66 Collection getObjectStreamContext();
67 }