/*

 * Copyright 2003-2006 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 sun.nio;

import java.nio.ByteBuffer;

import java.io.IOException;

/** This is an interface to adapt existing APIs to use {@link java.nio.ByteBuffer

 *  <tt>ByteBuffers</tt>} as the underlying

 *  data format.  Only the initial producer and final consumer have to be changed.<p>

 *

 *  For example, the Zip/Jar code supports {@link java.io.InputStream <tt>InputStreams</tt>}.

 *  To make the Zip code use {@link java.nio.MappedByteBuffer <tt>MappedByteBuffers</tt>} as

 *  the underlying data structure, it can create a class of InputStream that wraps the ByteBuffer,

 *  and implements the ByteBuffered interface. A co-operating class several layers

 *  away can ask the InputStream if it is an instance of ByteBuffered, then

 *  call the {@link #getByteBuffer()} method.

 */

public interface ByteBuffered {

     /**

     * Returns the <tt>ByteBuffer</tt> behind this object, if this particular

     * instance has one. An implementation of <tt>getByteBuffer()</tt> is allowed

     * to return <tt>null</tt> for any reason.

     *

     * @return  The <tt>ByteBuffer</tt>, if this particular instance has one,

     *          or <tt>null</tt> otherwise.

     *

     * @throws  IOException

     *          If the ByteBuffer is no longer valid.

     *

     * @since  1.5

     */

    public ByteBuffer getByteBuffer() throws IOException;

}