/*
 * 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.IOException;

/**
 * JavaBeans components that are Activation Framework aware implement
 * this interface to find out which command verb they're being asked
 * to perform, and to obtain the DataHandler representing the
 * data they should operate on.  JavaBeans that don't implement
 * this interface may be used as well.  Such commands may obtain
 * the data using the Externalizable interface, or using an
 * application-specific method.<p>
 *
 * @since 1.6
 */
public interface CommandObject {

    /**
     * Initialize the Command with the verb it is requested to handle
     * and the DataHandler that describes the data it will
     * operate on. <b>NOTE:</b> it is acceptable for the caller
     * to pass <i>null</i> as the value for <code>DataHandler</code>.
     *
     * @param verb The Command Verb this object refers to.
     * @param dh The DataHandler.
     */
    public void setCommandContext(String verb, DataHandler dh)
                                                throws IOException;
}