001/*
002 *  Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
003 *  or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
004 *  distributed with this work for additional information
005 *  regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
006 *  to you under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the
007 *  "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance
008 *  with the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
009 *  
010 *    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
011 *  
012 *  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing,
013 *  software distributed under the License is distributed on an
014 *  "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY
015 *  KIND, either express or implied.  See the License for the
016 *  specific language governing permissions and limitations
017 *  under the License. 
018 *  
019 */
020package org.apache.directory.api.ldap.codec.api;
021
022
023import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
024
025import org.apache.directory.api.asn1.EncoderException;
026
027
028/**
029 * The codec uses this interface to add additional information to LDAP Model
030 * objects during encoding and decoding,
031 *
032 * @param <E> The element to decorate
033 * 
034 * @author <a href="mailto:dev@directory.apache.org">Apache Directory Project</a>
035 */
036public interface Decorator<E>
037{
038    /**
039     * Gets the object being decorated by this IDecorator.
040     *
041     * @return The decorated object
042     */
043    E getDecorated();
044
045
046    /**
047     * Compute the object length, which is the sum of all inner length.
048     * 
049     * @return The object's computed length
050     */
051    int computeLength();
052
053
054    /**
055     * Encode the object to a PDU.
056     * 
057     * @param buffer The buffer where to put the PDU
058     * @return The PDU.
059     * @throws EncoderException if the buffer can't be encoded
060     */
061    ByteBuffer encode( ByteBuffer buffer ) throws EncoderException;
062
063
064    /**
065     * Gets the codec service responsible for managing the encoding and 
066     * decoding of the decorated objects.
067     * 
068     * @return the codec service
069     */
070    LdapApiService getCodecService();
071}