CredentialSerializer.java

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//* IBM                                                               *
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//* eu.abc4trust.pabce.1.34                                           *
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//*   http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0                      *
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package eu.abc4trust.cryptoEngine.user;

import java.net.URI;

import eu.abc4trust.xml.Credential;

public interface CredentialSerializer {

  /**
   * Serialize a credential to binary data.
   * Depending on the implementation, this function might compress the credential using
   * domain-specific knowledge.
   * @param cred
   * @return
   */
  byte[]     serializeCredential(Credential cred);
  
  /**
   * Recover a credential from binary data that was previously serialized with serializeCredential.
   * This function will only work properly if the CredentialSerializer has been configured in the
   * exact same way as during serialization time.
   * This function should be used in case the credentialUri and smartcardUri are serialized
   * by the specific instance of the credential serializer.
   * @param data
   * @return
   */
  Credential unserializeCredential(byte[] data);
  
  /**
   * Return a one-byte identifier (0-255) that identifies the current implementation of the
   * credential serializer.
   * @return
   */
  int magicHeader();

  /**
   * Recover a credential from binary data that was previously serialized with serializeCredential.
   * This function will only work properly if the CredentialSerializer has been configured in the
   * exact same way as during serialization time.
   * This function should be used in case the credentialUri and smartcardUri are NOT serialized
   * by the specific instance of the credential serializer (otherwise the extra parameters are
   * ignored).
   * @param data
   * @return
   */
  Credential unserializeCredential(byte[] data, URI credentialUri, URI smartcardUri);
}