/*
* reserved comment block
* DO NOT REMOVE OR ALTER!
*/
/*
* Copyright 1999-2002,2004 The Apache Software Foundation.
*
* 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 com.sun.org.apache.xml.internal.serialize;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.io.Writer;
import org.xml.sax.ContentHandler;
import org.xml.sax.DocumentHandler;
/**
* Interface for a DOM serializer implementation, factory for DOM and SAX
* serializers, and static methods for serializing DOM documents.
* <p>
* To serialize a document using SAX events, create a compatible serializer
* and pass it around as a {@link
* org.xml.sax.DocumentHandler}. If an I/O error occurs while serializing, it will
* be thrown by {@link DocumentHandler#endDocument}. The SAX serializer
* may also be used as {@link org.xml.sax.DTDHandler}, {@link org.xml.sax.ext.DeclHandler} and
* {@link org.xml.sax.ext.LexicalHandler}.
* <p>
* To serialize a DOM document or DOM element, create a compatible
* serializer and call it's {@link
* DOMSerializer#serialize(Document)} or {@link DOMSerializer#serialize(Element)} methods.
* Both methods would produce a full XML document, to serizlie only
* the portion of the document use {@link OutputFormat#setOmitXMLDeclaration}
* and specify no document type.
* <p>
* The {@link OutputFormat} dictates what underlying serialized is used
* to serialize the document based on the specified method. If the output
* format or method are missing, the default is an XML serializer with
* UTF-8 encoding and now indentation.
*
*
* @author <a href="mailto:arkin@intalio.com">Assaf Arkin</a>
* @author <a href="mailto:Scott_Boag/CAM/Lotus@lotus.com">Scott Boag</a>
* @see DocumentHandler
* @see ContentHandler
* @see OutputFormat
* @see DOMSerializer
*/
public interface Serializer
{
/**
* Specifies an output stream to which the document should be
* serialized. This method should not be called while the
* serializer is in the process of serializing a document.
*/
public void setOutputByteStream(OutputStream output);
/**
* Specifies a writer to which the document should be serialized.
* This method should not be called while the serializer is in
* the process of serializing a document.
*/
public void setOutputCharStream( Writer output );
/**
* Specifies an output format for this serializer. It the
* serializer has already been associated with an output format,
* it will switch to the new format. This method should not be
* called while the serializer is in the process of serializing
* a document.
*
* @param format The output format to use
*/
public void setOutputFormat( OutputFormat format );
/**
* Return a {@link DocumentHandler} interface into this serializer.
* If the serializer does not support the {@link DocumentHandler}
* interface, it should return null.
*/
public DocumentHandler asDocumentHandler()
throws IOException;
/**
* Return a {@link ContentHandler} interface into this serializer.
* If the serializer does not support the {@link ContentHandler}
* interface, it should return null.
*/
public ContentHandler asContentHandler()
throws IOException;
/**
* Return a {@link DOMSerializer} interface into this serializer.
* If the serializer does not support the {@link DOMSerializer}
* interface, it should return null.
*/
public DOMSerializer asDOMSerializer()
throws IOException;
}