/*

 * Copyright 1997-2005 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.

 * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.

 *

 * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it

 * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as

 * published by the Free Software Foundation.  Sun designates this

 * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided

 * by Sun in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code.

 *

 * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT

 * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or

 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License

 * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that

 * accompanied this code).

 *

 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version

 * 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,

 * Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.

 *

 * Please contact Sun Microsystems, Inc., 4150 Network Circle, Santa Clara,

 * CA 95054 USA or visit www.sun.com if you need additional information or

 * have any questions.

 */

package javax.activation;

import java.io.InputStream;

import java.io.OutputStream;

import java.io.IOException;

/**

 * The DataSource interface provides the JavaBeans Activation Framework

 * with an abstraction of an arbitrary collection of data.  It

 * provides a type for that data as well as access

 * to it in the form of <code>InputStreams</code> and

 * <code>OutputStreams</code> where appropriate.

 *

 * @since 1.6

 */

public interface DataSource {

    /**

     * This method returns an <code>InputStream</code> representing

     * the data and throws the appropriate exception if it can

     * not do so.  Note that a new <code>InputStream</code> object must be

     * returned each time this method is called, and the stream must be

     * positioned at the beginning of the data.

     *

     * @return an InputStream

     */

    public InputStream getInputStream() throws IOException;

    /**

     * This method returns an <code>OutputStream</code> where the

     * data can be written and throws the appropriate exception if it can

     * not do so.  Note that a new <code>OutputStream</code> object must

     * be returned each time this method is called, and the stream must

     * be positioned at the location the data is to be written.

     *

     * @return an OutputStream

     */

    public OutputStream getOutputStream() throws IOException;

    /**

     * This method returns the MIME type of the data in the form of a

     * string. It should always return a valid type. It is suggested

     * that getContentType return "application/octet-stream" if the

     * DataSource implementation can not determine the data type.

     *

     * @return the MIME Type

     */

    public String getContentType();

    /**

     * Return the <i>name</i> of this object where the name of the object

     * is dependant on the nature of the underlying objects. DataSources

     * encapsulating files may choose to return the filename of the object.

     * (Typically this would be the last component of the filename, not an

     * entire pathname.)

     *

     * @return the name of the object.

     */

    public String getName();

}