/**********************************************************************************
* $URL: https://source.sakaiproject.org/svn/kernel/trunk/api/src/main/java/org/sakaiproject/entity/api/serialize/EntitySerializer.java $
* $Id: EntitySerializer.java 105077 2012-02-24 22:54:29Z ottenhoff@longsight.com $
***********************************************************************************
*
* Copyright (c) 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Sakai Foundation
*
* Licensed under the Educational Community 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.opensource.org/licenses/ECL-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.sakaiproject.entity.api.serialize;
/**
* <pre>
* An EntitySerializer performs the work of serialization and requires a
* serializably Entity to work on, it used by an Entity Reader Handler, and
* should be a standalone class that can be unit tested or used outside Sakai to
* read serialzed data.
*
* PLEASE DO NOT, implement this interface as an internal interface, as the data will not
* be readable outside Sakai.
* </pre>
*
* @author ieb
*/
public interface EntitySerializer
{
/**
* @param se
* @param buffer
* @throws EntityParseException
*/
void parse(SerializableEntity se, byte[] buffer) throws EntityParseException;
/**
* @param se
* @return
* @throws EntityParseException
*/
byte[] serialize(SerializableEntity se) throws EntityParseException;
/**
* Return true if this serializer can parse the data
* @param blob
* @return
*/
boolean accept(byte[] blob);
}