/*
 * Copyright 1995-1997 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.net;

/**
 * This interface defines a factory for content handlers. An
 * implementation of this interface should map a MIME type into an
 * instance of <code>ContentHandler</code>.
 * <p>
 * This interface is used by the <code>URLStreamHandler</code> class
 * to create a <code>ContentHandler</code> for a MIME type.
 *
 * @author  James Gosling
 * @see     java.net.ContentHandler
 * @see     java.net.URLStreamHandler
 * @since   JDK1.0
 */
public interface ContentHandlerFactory {
    /**
     * Creates a new <code>ContentHandler</code> to read an object from
     * a <code>URLStreamHandler</code>.
     *
     * @param   mimetype   the MIME type for which a content handler is desired.

     * @return  a new <code>ContentHandler</code> to read an object from a
     *          <code>URLStreamHandler</code>.
     * @see     java.net.ContentHandler
     * @see     java.net.URLStreamHandler
     */
    ContentHandler createContentHandler(String mimetype);
}