/*

 * Copyright 2002-2007 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.management.remote.rmi;

import java.io.IOException;

import java.rmi.Remote;

import java.rmi.RemoteException;

/**

 * <p>RMI object used to establish connections to an RMI connector.

 * There is one Remote object implementing this interface for each RMI

 * connector.</p>

 *

 * <p>User code does not usually refer to this interface.  It is

 * specified as part of the public API so that different

 * implementations of that API will interoperate.</p>

 *

 * @since 1.5

 */

public interface RMIServer extends Remote {

    /**

     * <p>The version of the RMI Connector Protocol understood by this

     * connector server.  This is a string with the following format:</p>

     *

     * <pre>

     * <em>protocol-version</em> <em>implementation-name</em>

     * </pre>

     *

     * <p>The <code><em>protocol-version</em></code> is a series of

     * two or more non-negative integers separated by periods

     * (<code>.</code>).  An implementation of the version described

     * by this documentation must use the string <code>1.0</code>

     * here.</p>

     *

     * <p>After the protocol version there must be a space, followed

     * by the implementation name.  The format of the implementation

     * name is unspecified.  It is recommended that it include an

     * implementation version number.  An implementation can use an

     * empty string as its implementation name, for example for

     * security reasons.</p>

     *

     * @return a string with the format described here.

     *

     * @exception RemoteException if there is a communication

     * exception during the remote method call.

     */

    public String getVersion() throws RemoteException;

    /**

     * <p>Makes a new connection through this RMI connector.  Each

     * remote client calls this method to obtain a new RMI object

     * representing its connection.</p>

     *

     * @param credentials this object specifies the user-defined credentials

     * to be passed in to the server in order to authenticate the user before

     * creating the <code>RMIConnection</code>.  Can be null.

     *

     * @return the newly-created connection object.

     *

     * @exception IOException if the new client object cannot be

     * created or exported, or if there is a communication exception

     * during the remote method call.

     *

     * @exception SecurityException if the given credentials do not

     * allow the server to authenticate the caller successfully.

     */

    public RMIConnection newClient(Object credentials) throws IOException;

}