content: /*
   * Copyright (c) 1996, 2013, 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
   */
  @Deprecated
  public 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} 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} and produced by
       * {@code encode}.
       *
       * @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}
       * and {@code decode} 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);
  }
  