/*
 * Copyright (c) 1998, 1999, Oracle and/or its affiliates. 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.  Oracle designates this
 * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided
 * by Oracle 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 Oracle, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065 USA
 * or visit www.oracle.com if you need additional information or have any
 * questions.
 */
/*
 * Licensed Materials - Property of IBM
 * RMI-IIOP v1.0
 * Copyright IBM Corp. 1998 1999  All Rights Reserved
 *
 */

package javax.rmi.CORBA;

/**
 * Defines methods which allow serialization of Java objects
 * to and from GIOP streams.
 **/
public interface ValueHandler {

    /**
     * Writes a value to the stream using Java semantics.
     * @param out the stream to write the value to.
     * @param value the value to be written to the stream.
     **/
    void writeValue(org.omg.CORBA.portable.OutputStream out,
                    java.io.Serializable value);

    /**
     * Reads a value from the stream using Java semantics.
     * @param in the stream to read the value from.
     * @param offset the current position in the input stream.
     * @param clz the type of the value to be read in.
     * @param repositoryID the RepositoryId of the value to be read in.
     * @param sender the sending context runtime codebase.
     * @return the value read from the stream.
     **/
    java.io.Serializable readValue(org.omg.CORBA.portable.InputStream in,
                                   int offset,
                                   java.lang.Class clz,
                                   String repositoryID,
                                   org.omg.SendingContext.RunTime sender);

    /**
     * Returns the CORBA RepositoryId for the given Java class.
     * @param clz a Java class.
     * @return the CORBA RepositoryId for the class.
     **/
    java.lang.String getRMIRepositoryID(java.lang.Class clz);

    /**
     * Indicates whether the given class performs custom or
     * default marshaling.
     * @param clz the class to test for custom marshaling.
     * @return <code>true</code> if the class performs custom marshaling, <code>false</code>
     * if it does not.
     **/
    boolean isCustomMarshaled(java.lang.Class clz);

    /**
     * Returns the CodeBase for this ValueHandler.  This is used by
     * the ORB runtime.  The server sends the service context containing
     * the IOR for this CodeBase on the first GIOP reply.  The client
     * does the same on the first GIOP request.
     * @return the SendingContext.CodeBase of this ValueHandler.
     **/
    org.omg.SendingContext.RunTime getRunTimeCodeBase();

    /**
     * If the value contains a <code>writeReplace</code> method then the result
     * is returned.  Otherwise, the value itself is returned.
     * @param value the value to be marshaled.
     * @return the true value to marshal on the wire.
     **/
    java.io.Serializable writeReplace(java.io.Serializable value);

}