001/* DataContentHandler.java -- Converts streams to objects and vice versa.
002   Copyright (C) 2004 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
003
004This file is part of GNU Classpath.
005
006GNU Classpath is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
007it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
008the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
009any later version.
010
011GNU Classpath is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
012WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
013MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
014General Public License for more details.
015
016You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
017along with GNU Classpath; see the file COPYING.  If not, write to the
018Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA
01902110-1301 USA.
020
021Linking this library statically or dynamically with other modules is
022making a combined work based on this library.  Thus, the terms and
023conditions of the GNU General Public License cover the whole
024combination.
025
026As a special exception, the copyright holders of this library give you
027permission to link this library with independent modules to produce an
028executable, regardless of the license terms of these independent
029modules, and to copy and distribute the resulting executable under
030terms of your choice, provided that you also meet, for each linked
031independent module, the terms and conditions of the license of that
032module.  An independent module is a module which is not derived from
033or based on this library.  If you modify this library, you may extend
034this exception to your version of the library, but you are not
035obligated to do so.  If you do not wish to do so, delete this
036exception statement from your version. */
037
038package javax.activation;
039
040import java.awt.datatransfer.DataFlavor;
041import java.awt.datatransfer.UnsupportedFlavorException;
042import java.io.IOException;
043import java.io.OutputStream;
044
045/**
046 * Provider that can convert streams to objects and vice versa.
047 *
048 * @author <a href='mailto:dog@gnu.org'>Chris Burdess</a>
049 * @version 1.1
050 */
051public interface DataContentHandler
052{
053
054  /**
055   * Returns a list of the flavors that data can be provided in, ordered
056   * by preference.
057   */
058  DataFlavor[] getTransferDataFlavors();
059  
060  /**
061   * Returns an object representing the data to be transferred.
062   * @param df the flavor representing the requested type
063   * @param ds the data source of the data to be converted
064   */
065  Object getTransferData(DataFlavor df, DataSource ds)
066    throws UnsupportedFlavorException, IOException;
067  
068  /**
069   * Returns an object representing the data in its most preferred form.
070   * @param ds the data source of the data to be converted
071   */
072  Object getContent(DataSource ds)
073    throws IOException;
074  
075  /**
076   * Writes the object as a stream of bytes.
077   * @param obj the object to convert
078   * @param mimeType the MIME type of the stream
079   * @param os the byte stream
080   */
081  void writeTo(Object obj, String mimeType, OutputStream os)
082    throws IOException;
083  
084}
085