/* * Copyright (c) 1999, 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 * or visit www.oracle.com if you need additional information or have any * questions. */ package javax.naming.ldap; /**  * This interface represents an LDAPv3 control as defined in  * <A HREF="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2251.txt">RFC 2251</A>.  *<p>  * The LDAPv3 protocol uses controls to send and receive additional data  * to affect the behavior of predefined operations.  * Controls can be sent along with any LDAP operation to the server.  * These are referred to as <em>request controls</em>. For example, a  * "sort" control can be sent with an LDAP search operation to  * request that the results be returned in a particular order.  * Solicited and unsolicited controls can also be returned with  * responses from the server. Such controls are referred to as  * <em>response controls</em>. For example, an LDAP server might  * define a special control to return change notifications.  *<p>  * This interface is used to represent both request and response controls.  *  * @author Rosanna Lee  * @author Scott Seligman  * @author Vincent Ryan  *  * @see ControlFactory  * @since 1.3  */public interface Control extends java.io.Serializable {    /**      * Indicates a critical control.      * The value of this constant is <tt>true</tt>.      */    public static final boolean CRITICAL = true;     /**      * Indicates a non-critical control.      * The value of this constant is <tt>false</tt>.      */    public static final boolean NONCRITICAL = false;     /**      * Retrieves the object identifier assigned for the LDAP control.      *      * @return The non-null object identifier string.      */    public String getID();     /**      * Determines the criticality of the LDAP control.      * A critical control must not be ignored by the server.      * In other words, if the server receives a critical control      * that it does not support, regardless of whether the control      * makes sense for the operation, the operation will not be performed      * and an <tt>OperationNotSupportedException</tt> will be thrown.      * @return true if this control is critical; false otherwise.      */    public boolean isCritical();     /**      * Retrieves the ASN.1 BER encoded value of the LDAP control.      * The result is the raw BER bytes including the tag and length of      * the control's value. It does not include the controls OID or criticality.      *      * Null is returned if the value is absent.      *      * @return A possibly null byte array representing the ASN.1 BER encoded      *         value of the LDAP control.      */    public byte[] getEncodedValue();     // static final long serialVersionUID = -591027748900004825L;}