DataSource (Java 2 Platform Ent. Ed. v1.4) - Java Platform, Enterprise Edition v1.4 API Specifications

Overview

Package

Class

Tree

Deprecated

Index

Help

Java^TM 2 Platform
Ent. Ed. v1.4

PREV CLASS NEXT CLASS

FRAMES NO FRAMES

SUMMARY: NESTED | FIELD | CONSTR | METHOD

DETAIL: FIELD | CONSTR | METHOD

javax.activation
Interface DataSource

All Known Subinterfaces:: MultipartDataSource

All Known Implementing Classes:: FileDataSource, MimePartDataSource, URLDataSource

public interface DataSource

The DataSource interface provides the JavaBeans Activation Framework with an abstraction of some arbitrary collection of data. It provides a type for that data as well as access to it in the form of InputStreams and OutputStreams where appropriate.

Method Summary

String getContentType()
          This method returns the MIME type of the data in the form of a string.

InputStream getInputStream()
          This method returns an InputStream representing the data and throws the appropriate exception if it can not do so.

String getName()
          Return the name of this object where the name of the object is dependant on the nature of the underlying objects.

OutputStream getOutputStream()
          This method returns an OutputStream where the data can be written and throws the appropriate exception if it can not do so.

Method Detail

getInputStream

public InputStream getInputStream()
                           throws IOException

This method returns an InputStream representing the data and throws the appropriate exception if it can not do so. Note that a new InputStream object must be returned each time this method is called, and the stream must be positioned at the beginning of the data.

Returns:: an InputStream
Throws:: IOException

getOutputStream

public OutputStream getOutputStream()
                             throws IOException

This method returns an OutputStream where the data can be written and throws the appropriate exception if it can not do so. Note that a new OutputStream object must be returned each time this method is called, and the stream must be positioned at the location the data is to be written.

Returns:: an OutputStream
Throws:: IOException

getContentType

public String getContentType()

This method returns the MIME type of the data in the form of a string. It should always return a valid type. It is suggested that getContentType return "application/octet-stream" if the DataSource implementation can not determine the data type.

Returns:: the MIME Type

getName

public String getName()

Return the name of this object where the name of the object is dependant on the nature of the underlying objects. DataSources encapsulating files may choose to return the filename of the object. (Typically this would be the last component of the filename, not an entire pathname.)

Returns:: the name of the object.