content: /*
   *   Copyright 2009 Joubin Houshyar
   * 
   *   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 org.jredis;
  
  
  
  /**
   * Defines the necessary methods for a Java type encoder-decoder.  Implementations of this
   * interface can be registered with a {@link CodecManager} used by a {@link JRedis} implementation
   * (whether per instance or by other relations per JRedis provider implementation), and used
   * during the encoding of an semantic java type into {@link byte[]} and back.  
   *
   * @author  Joubin (alphazero@sensesay.net)
   * @version alpha.0, Apr 14, 2009
   * @since   alpha.0
   * 
   */
  
  public interface Codec <T extends Object>  {
  	/**
  	 * @param bytes
  	 * @return an instance of type <code>T</code> corresponding to the value of decoded <code>bytes</code>
  	 */
  	public T decode (byte[] bytes);
  	/**
  	 * @param object
  	 * @return
  	 */
  	public byte[] encode (T object);
  	/**
  	 * @param type
  	 * @return whether this codec supports the (en/de)coding of the type <code>T</code>
  	 */
  	public boolean supports (Class<?> type);
  }
  