/* * Copyright (c) 1996, 2006, 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 * or visit www.oracle.com if you need additional information or have any * questions. */ package java.security; import java.io.*;import java.util.Date; /** * <p>This is an interface of abstract methods for managing a * variety of identity certificates. * An identity certificate is a guarantee by a principal that * a public key is that of another principal.  (A principal represents * an entity such as an individual user, a group, or a corporation.) * * <p>In particular, this interface is intended to be a common * abstraction for constructs that have different formats but * important common uses.  For example, different types of * certificates, such as X.509 certificates and PGP certificates, * share general certificate functionality (the need to encode and * decode certificates) and some types of information, such as a * public key, the principal whose key it is, and the guarantor * guaranteeing that the public key is that of the specified * principal. So an implementation of X.509 certificates and an * implementation of PGP certificates can both utilize the Certificate * interface, even though their formats and additional types and * amounts of information stored are different. * * <p><b>Important</b>: This interface is useful for cataloging and * grouping objects sharing certain common uses. It does not have any * semantics of its own. In particular, a Certificate object does not * make any statement as to the <i>validity</i> of the binding. It is * the duty of the application implementing this interface to verify * the certificate and satisfy itself of its validity. * * @author Benjamin Renaud * @deprecated A new certificate handling package is created in the Java platform. *             This Certificate interface is entirely deprecated and *             is here to allow for a smooth transition to the new *             package. * @see java.security.cert.Certificate */@Deprecatedpublic interface Certificate {     /**     * Returns the guarantor of the certificate, that is, the principal     * guaranteeing that the public key associated with this certificate     * is that of the principal associated with this certificate. For X.509     * certificates, the guarantor will typically be a Certificate Authority     * (such as the United States Postal Service or Verisign, Inc.).     *     * @return the guarantor which guaranteed the principal-key     * binding.     */    public abstract Principal getGuarantor();     /**     * Returns the principal of the principal-key pair being guaranteed by     * the guarantor.     *     * @return the principal to which this certificate is bound.     */    public abstract Principal getPrincipal();     /**     * Returns the key of the principal-key pair being guaranteed by     * the guarantor.     *     * @return the public key that this certificate certifies belongs     * to a particular principal.     */    public abstract PublicKey getPublicKey();     /**     * Encodes the certificate to an output stream in a format that can     * be decoded by the <code>decode</code> method.     *     * @param stream the output stream to which to encode the     * certificate.     *     * @exception KeyException if the certificate is not     * properly initialized, or data is missing, etc.     *     * @exception IOException if a stream exception occurs while     * trying to output the encoded certificate to the output stream.     *     * @see #decode     * @see #getFormat     */    public abstract void encode(OutputStream stream)        throws KeyException, IOException;     /**     * Decodes a certificate from an input stream. The format should be     * that returned by <code>getFormat</code> and produced by     * <code>encode</code>.     *     * @param stream the input stream from which to fetch the data     * being decoded.     *     * @exception KeyException if the certificate is not properly initialized,     * or data is missing, etc.     *     * @exception IOException if an exception occurs while trying to input     * the encoded certificate from the input stream.     *     * @see #encode     * @see #getFormat     */    public abstract void decode(InputStream stream)        throws KeyException, IOException;      /**     * Returns the name of the coding format. This is used as a hint to find     * an appropriate parser. It could be "X.509", "PGP", etc. This is     * the format produced and understood by the <code>encode</code>     * and <code>decode</code> methods.     *     * @return the name of the coding format.     */    public abstract String getFormat();     /**     * Returns a string that represents the contents of the certificate.     *     * @param detailed whether or not to give detailed information     * about the certificate     *     * @return a string representing the contents of the certificate     */    public String toString(boolean detailed);}