PacketExtension.java

/**
 * $RCSfile$
 * $Revision: 11456 $
 * $Date: 2009-12-09 14:29:48 -0600 (Wed, 09 Dec 2009) $
 *
 * Copyright 2003-2007 Jive Software.
 *
 * All rights reserved. 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.jivesoftware.smack.packet;

/**
 * Interface to represent packet extensions. A packet extension is an XML
 * subdocument with a root element name and namespace. Packet extensions are
 * used to provide extended functionality beyond what is in the base XMPP
 * specification. Examples of packet extensions include message events, message
 * properties, and extra presence data. IQ packets cannot contain packet
 * extensions.
 * 
 * @see DefaultPacketExtension
 * @see org.jivesoftware.smack.provider.PacketExtensionProvider
 * @author Matt Tucker
 */
public interface PacketExtension {

	/**
	 * Returns the root element name.
	 * 
	 * @return the element name.
	 */
	public String getElementName();

	/**
	 * Returns the root element XML namespace.
	 * 
	 * @return the namespace.
	 */
	public String getNamespace();

	/**
	 * Returns the XML representation of the PacketExtension.
	 * 
	 * @return the packet extension as XML.
	 */
	public String toXML();
}