/*
* Copyright (c) 2005, 2010, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
* DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
*
* This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
* under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as
* published by the Free Software Foundation. Oracle designates this
* particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided
* by Oracle in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code.
*
* This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
* ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
* FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
* version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that
* accompanied this code).
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version
* 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
* Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
*
* Please contact Oracle, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065 USA
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*/
package javax.xml.ws;
/**
* <p>Service endpoints may implement the <code>Provider</code>
* interface as a dynamic alternative to an SEI.
*
* <p>Implementations are required to support <code>Provider&lt;Source&gt;</code>,
* <code>Provider&lt;SOAPMessage&gt;</code> and
* <code>Provider&lt;DataSource&gt;</code>, depending on the binding
* in use and the service mode.
*
* <p>The <code>ServiceMode</code> annotation can be used to control whether
* the <code>Provider</code> instance will receive entire protocol messages
* or just message payloads.
*
* @since JAX-WS 2.0
*
* @see javax.xml.transform.Source
* @see javax.xml.soap.SOAPMessage
* @see javax.xml.ws.ServiceMode
**/
public interface Provider<T> {
/** Invokes an operation occording to the contents of the request
* message.
*
* @param request The request message or message payload.
* @return The response message or message payload. May be <code>null</code> if
there is no response.
* @throws WebServiceException If there is an error processing request.
* The cause of the <code>WebServiceException</code> may be set to a subclass
* of <code>ProtocolException</code> to control the protocol level
* representation of the exception.
* @see javax.xml.ws.handler.MessageContext
* @see javax.xml.ws.ProtocolException
**/
public T invoke(T request);
}