1/*
2 * Copyright (c) 1999, 2010, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
3 * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
4 *
5 * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
6 * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as
7 * published by the Free Software Foundation.  Oracle designates this
8 * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided
9 * by Oracle in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code.
10 *
11 * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
12 * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
13 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
14 * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that
15 * accompanied this code).
16 *
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19 * Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
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24 */
25
26package javax.naming.ldap;
27
28/**
29  * This interface represents an LDAPv3 control as defined in
30  * <A HREF="http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2251.txt">RFC 2251</A>.
31  *<p>
32  * The LDAPv3 protocol uses controls to send and receive additional data
33  * to affect the behavior of predefined operations.
34  * Controls can be sent along with any LDAP operation to the server.
35  * These are referred to as <em>request controls</em>. For example, a
36  * "sort" control can be sent with an LDAP search operation to
37  * request that the results be returned in a particular order.
38  * Solicited and unsolicited controls can also be returned with
39  * responses from the server. Such controls are referred to as
40  * <em>response controls</em>. For example, an LDAP server might
41  * define a special control to return change notifications.
42  *<p>
43  * This interface is used to represent both request and response controls.
44  *
45  * @author Rosanna Lee
46  * @author Scott Seligman
47  * @author Vincent Ryan
48  *
49  * @see ControlFactory
50  * @since 1.3
51  */
52public interface Control extends java.io.Serializable {
53    /**
54      * Indicates a critical control.
55      * The value of this constant is {@code true}.
56      */
57    public static final boolean CRITICAL = true;
58
59    /**
60      * Indicates a non-critical control.
61      * The value of this constant is {@code false}.
62      */
63    public static final boolean NONCRITICAL = false;
64
65    /**
66      * Retrieves the object identifier assigned for the LDAP control.
67      *
68      * @return The non-null object identifier string.
69      */
70    public String getID();
71
72    /**
73      * Determines the criticality of the LDAP control.
74      * A critical control must not be ignored by the server.
75      * In other words, if the server receives a critical control
76      * that it does not support, regardless of whether the control
77      * makes sense for the operation, the operation will not be performed
78      * and an {@code OperationNotSupportedException} will be thrown.
79      * @return true if this control is critical; false otherwise.
80      */
81    public boolean isCritical();
82
83    /**
84      * Retrieves the ASN.1 BER encoded value of the LDAP control.
85      * The result is the raw BER bytes including the tag and length of
86      * the control's value. It does not include the controls OID or criticality.
87      *
88      * Null is returned if the value is absent.
89      *
90      * @return A possibly null byte array representing the ASN.1 BER encoded
91      *         value of the LDAP control.
92      */
93    public byte[] getEncodedValue();
94
95    // static final long serialVersionUID = -591027748900004825L;
96}
97