View Javadoc

1   /*
2    * Licensed to the University Corporation for Advanced Internet Development, 
3    * Inc. (UCAID) under one or more contributor license agreements.  See the 
4    * NOTICE file distributed with this work for additional information regarding
5    * copyright ownership. The UCAID licenses this file to You under the Apache 
6    * License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in 
7    * compliance with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
8    *
9    *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
10   *
11   * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
12   * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
13   * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
14   * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
15   * limitations under the License.
16   */
17  
18  package edu.internet2.middleware.shibboleth.common.attribute.encoding;
19  
20  import edu.internet2.middleware.shibboleth.common.attribute.BaseAttribute;
21  
22  
23  /**
24   * Attribute encoders convert {@link BaseAttribute}s into protocol specific representations.
25   * 
26   * Encoders may have contain a category that can be used to distingush encoder types from
27   * each other.  This inteded to be used to look up an encoder that can be used to encode 
28   * attributes in accordance with a defined specification or tranmission protcol.
29   * 
30   * Encoders MUST be thread-safe and stateless.
31   * 
32   * @param <EncodedType> the type of object created by encoding the attribute
33   */
34  public interface AttributeEncoder<EncodedType> {
35      
36      /**
37       * Get the name of the attribute.
38       * 
39       * @return name of the attribute
40       */
41      public String getAttributeName();
42      
43      /**
44       * Sets the name of the attribute.
45       * 
46       * @param attributeName name of the attribute
47       */
48      public void setAttributeName(String attributeName);
49      
50      /**
51       * Enocdes the attribute into a protocol specific representations.
52       * 
53       * @param attribute the attribute to encode
54       * 
55       * @return the Object the attribute was encoded into
56       * 
57       * @throws AttributeEncodingException if unable to successfully encode attribute
58       */
59      public EncodedType encode(BaseAttribute attribute) throws AttributeEncodingException;
60  }