/*

 * 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 java.rmi.activation;

import java.rmi.MarshalledObject;

import java.rmi.Remote;

import java.rmi.RemoteException;

/**

 * An <code>ActivationInstantiator</code> is responsible for creating

 * instances of "activatable" objects. A concrete subclass of

 * <code>ActivationGroup</code> implements the <code>newInstance</code>

 * method to handle creating objects within the group.

 *

 * @author      Ann Wollrath

 * @see         ActivationGroup

 * @since       1.2

 */

public interface ActivationInstantiator extends Remote {

   /**

    * The activator calls an instantiator's <code>newInstance</code>

    * method in order to recreate in that group an object with the

    * activation identifier, <code>id</code>, and descriptor,

    * <code>desc</code>. The instantiator is responsible for: <ul>

    *

    * <li> determining the class for the object using the descriptor's

    * <code>getClassName</code> method,

    *

    * <li> loading the class from the code location obtained from the

    * descriptor (using the <code>getLocation</code> method),

    *

    * <li> creating an instance of the class by invoking the special

    * "activation" constructor of the object's class that takes two

    * arguments: the object's <code>ActivationID</code>, and the

    * <code>MarshalledObject</code> containing object specific

    * initialization data, and

    *

    * <li> returning a MarshalledObject containing the stub for the

    * remote object it created </ul>

    *

    * @param id the object's activation identifier

    * @param desc the object's descriptor

    * @return a marshalled object containing the serialized

    * representation of remote object's stub

    * @exception ActivationException if object activation fails

    * @exception RemoteException if remote call fails

    * @since 1.2

    */

    public MarshalledObject<? extends Remote> newInstance(ActivationID id,

                                                          ActivationDesc desc)

        throws ActivationException, RemoteException;

}