/*

 * reserved comment block

 * DO NOT REMOVE OR ALTER!

 */

/*

 * Copyright 1999-2002,2004 The Apache Software Foundation.

 *

 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");

 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.

 * You may obtain a copy of the License at

 *

 *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

 *

 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software

 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,

 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.

 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and

 * limitations under the License.

 */

package com.sun.org.apache.xml.internal.serialize;

import java.io.IOException;

import java.io.OutputStream;

import java.io.Writer;

import org.xml.sax.ContentHandler;

import org.xml.sax.DocumentHandler;

/**

 * Interface for a DOM serializer implementation, factory for DOM and SAX

 * serializers, and static methods for serializing DOM documents.

 * <p>

 * To serialize a document using SAX events, create a compatible serializer

 * and pass it around as a {@link

 * org.xml.sax.DocumentHandler}. If an I/O error occurs while serializing, it will

 * be thrown by {@link DocumentHandler#endDocument}. The SAX serializer

 * may also be used as {@link org.xml.sax.DTDHandler}, {@link org.xml.sax.ext.DeclHandler} and

 * {@link org.xml.sax.ext.LexicalHandler}.

 * <p>

 * To serialize a DOM document or DOM element, create a compatible

 * serializer and call it's {@link

 * DOMSerializer#serialize(Document)} or {@link DOMSerializer#serialize(Element)} methods.

 * Both methods would produce a full XML document, to serizlie only

 * the portion of the document use {@link OutputFormat#setOmitXMLDeclaration}

 * and specify no document type.

 * <p>

 * The {@link OutputFormat} dictates what underlying serialized is used

 * to serialize the document based on the specified method. If the output

 * format or method are missing, the default is an XML serializer with

 * UTF-8 encoding and now indentation.

 *

 *

 * @author <a href="mailto:arkin@intalio.com">Assaf Arkin</a>

 * @author <a href="mailto:Scott_Boag/CAM/Lotus@lotus.com">Scott Boag</a>

 * @see DocumentHandler

 * @see ContentHandler

 * @see OutputFormat

 * @see DOMSerializer

 */

public interface Serializer

{

    /**

     * Specifies an output stream to which the document should be

     * serialized. This method should not be called while the

     * serializer is in the process of serializing a document.

     */

    public void setOutputByteStream(OutputStream output);

    /**

     * Specifies a writer to which the document should be serialized.

     * This method should not be called while the serializer is in

     * the process of serializing a document.

     */

    public void setOutputCharStream( Writer output );

    /**

     * Specifies an output format for this serializer. It the

     * serializer has already been associated with an output format,

     * it will switch to the new format. This method should not be

     * called while the serializer is in the process of serializing

     * a document.

     *

     * @param format The output format to use

     */

    public void setOutputFormat( OutputFormat format );

    /**

     * Return a {@link DocumentHandler} interface into this serializer.

     * If the serializer does not support the {@link DocumentHandler}

     * interface, it should return null.

     */

    public DocumentHandler asDocumentHandler()

        throws IOException;

    /**

     * Return a {@link ContentHandler} interface into this serializer.

     * If the serializer does not support the {@link ContentHandler}

     * interface, it should return null.

     */

    public ContentHandler asContentHandler()

        throws IOException;

    /**

     * Return a {@link DOMSerializer} interface into this serializer.

     * If the serializer does not support the {@link DOMSerializer}

     * interface, it should return null.

     */

    public DOMSerializer asDOMSerializer()

        throws IOException;

}