/*
* Copyright Terracotta, Inc.
*
* Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
* you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
* You may obtain a copy of the License at
*
* http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
*
* Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
* distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
* WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
* See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
* limitations under the License.
*/
package org.ehcache.spi.serialization;
import java.nio.ByteBuffer;
/**
* Defines the contract used to transform type instances to and from a serial form.
* <p>
* Implementations must be thread-safe.
* <p>
* When used within the default serialization provider, there is an additional requirement.
* The implementations must define a constructor that takes in a {@code ClassLoader}.
* The {@code ClassLoader} value may be {@code null}. If not {@code null}, the class loader
* instance provided should be used during deserialization to load classes needed by the deserialized objects.
* <p>
* The serialized object's class must be preserved; deserialization of the serial form of an object must
* return an object of the same class. The following contract must always be true:
* <p>
* {@code object.getClass().equals( mySerializer.read(mySerializer.serialize(object)).getClass())}
*
* @param <T> the type of the instances to serialize
*
* @see SerializationProvider
*/
public interface Serializer<T> {
/**
* Transforms the given instance into its serial form.
*
* @param object the instance to serialize
*
* @return the binary representation of the serial form
*
* @throws SerializerException if serialization fails
*/
ByteBuffer serialize(T object) throws SerializerException;
/**
* Reconstructs an instance from the given serial form.
*
* @param binary the binary representation of the serial form
*
* @return the de-serialized instance
*
* @throws SerializerException if reading the byte buffer fails
* @throws ClassNotFoundException if the type to de-serialize to cannot be found
*/
T read(ByteBuffer binary) throws ClassNotFoundException, SerializerException;
/**
* Checks if the given instance and serial form {@link Object#equals(Object) represent} the same instance.
*
* @param object the instance to check
* @param binary the serial form to check
*
* @return {@code true} if both parameters represent equal instances, {@code false} otherwise
*
* @throws SerializerException if reading the byte buffer fails
* @throws ClassNotFoundException if the type to de-serialize to cannot be found
*/
boolean equals(T object, ByteBuffer binary) throws ClassNotFoundException, SerializerException;
}