/**
 * Copyright (C) 2010-14 diirt developers. See COPYRIGHT.TXT
 * All rights reserved. Use is subject to license terms. See LICENSE.TXT
 */
package org.diirt.datasource.file;

import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.util.Collection;

/**
 * A way to read and write an object with a particular file format.
 *
 * @author carcassi
 */
public interface FileFormat {

    /**
     * Reads the value from the given stream.
     *
     * @param in a stream; not null
     * @return the value de-serialized
     * @throws java.lang.Exception any error
     */
    public Object readValue(InputStream in) throws Exception;

    /**
     * Write the value to the given stream.
     *
     * @param value the value to write; not null
     * @param out the output stream; not null
     * @throws java.lang.Exception any error
     */
    public void writeValue(Object value, OutputStream out) throws Exception;

    /**
     * Whether writes are supported.
     *
     * @return true if can serialize objects
     */
    public boolean isWriteSupported();

    /**
     * The file extensions supported by this file format.
     *
     * @return a non-empty set of file extensions
     */
    public Collection<String> getFileExtensions();
}