old-autovect-branch/libjava/classpath/javax/rmi/CORBA/ValueHandlerMultiFormat.java

   1 /* ValueHandlerMultiFormat.java --
   2    Copyright (C) 2005 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
   3
   4 This file is part of GNU Classpath.
   5
   6 GNU Classpath is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
   7 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
   8 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
   9 any later version.
  10
  11 GNU Classpath is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
  12 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
  13 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
  14 General Public License for more details.
  15
  16 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
  17 along with GNU Classpath; see the file COPYING.  If not, write to the
  18 Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA
  19 02110-1301 USA.
  20
  21 Linking this library statically or dynamically with other modules is
  22 making a combined work based on this library.  Thus, the terms and
  23 conditions of the GNU General Public License cover the whole
  24 combination.
  25
  26 As a special exception, the copyright holders of this library give you
  27 permission to link this library with independent modules to produce an
  28 executable, regardless of the license terms of these independent
  29 modules, and to copy and distribute the resulting executable under
  30 terms of your choice, provided that you also meet, for each linked
  31 independent module, the terms and conditions of the license of that
  32 module.  An independent module is a module which is not derived from
  33 or based on this library.  If you modify this library, you may extend
  34 this exception to your version of the library, but you are not
  35 obligated to do so.  If you do not wish to do so, delete this
  36 exception statement from your version. */
  37
  38
  39 package javax.rmi.CORBA;
  40
  41 import org.omg.CORBA.portable.OutputStream;
  42
  43 import java.io.Serializable;
  44
  45 /**
  46  * This interface extends the previous ValueHandler, supporting various stream
  47  * format versions. The {@link ValueHandler} can be casted into this interface
  48  * to access additional features.
  49  *
  50  * @since 1.5
  51  *
  52  * @author Audrius Meskauskas, Lithuania (AudriusA@Bioinformatics.org)
  53  */
  54 public interface ValueHandlerMultiFormat
  55   extends ValueHandler
  56 {
  57   /**
  58    * Get the maximal supported version for the value types, supported by
  59    * this value handler. The versions are integer numbers, the currently valid
  60    * values being 1 and 2.
  61    *
  62    * These two versions differ in how the additional data, stored by the
  63    * writeObject method, are encoded.
  64    * <ul>
  65    * <li> For version 1 (GNU Classpath default), that data (if present) are
  66    * written "as is". </li>
  67    * <li>For version 2, this data fragment is enclosed within a CDR custom
  68    * valuetype with no codebase and repository Id "RMI:org.omg.custom.<class>"
  69    * where <class> is the fully-qualified name of the class whose writeObject
  70    * method is being invoked. If the object does not write any data via
  71    * writeObject method, the null valuetype (0x0) must be written.</li>
  72    * </ul>
  73    * As the version number is part of the value type record, there is no need
  74    * to the format control during the reading.
  75    *
  76    * @return the maximal supported version.
  77    */
  78   byte getMaximumStreamFormatVersion();
  79
  80   /**
  81    * Write the value type to the output stream using the given format version.
  82    * The older method {@link ValueHandler#writeValue} always uses the version 1.
  83    *
  84    * @param output the stream, where the value should be written, must implement
  85    * {@link ValueOutputStream}.
  86    * @param value the value that should be written.
  87    * @param version the version of the format that must be used to write the
  88    * value.
  89    *
  90    * @throws BAD_PARAM if the version number is less than 1 or greater than the
  91    * maximal supported version.
  92    */
  93   void writeValue(OutputStream output, Serializable value, byte version);
  94 }