package org.omg.IOP;


/**
* org/omg/IOP/CodecOperations.java .
* Generated by the IDL-to-Java compiler (portable), version "3.2"
* from ../../../../src/share/classes/org/omg/PortableInterceptor/IOP.idl
* Wednesday, September 15, 2004 10:28:42 AM GMT
*/


/**
   * The formats of IOR components and service context data used by ORB 
   * services are often defined as CDR encapsulations encoding instances 
   * of IDL defined data types. The <code>Codec</code> provides a mechanism 
   * to transfer these components between their IDL data types and their CDR 
   * encapsulation representations. 
   * <p>
   * A <code>Codec</code> is obtained from the <code>CodecFactory</code>. 
   * The <code>CodecFactory</code> is obtained through a call to 
   * <code>ORB.resolve_initial_references( "CodecFactory" )</code>.
   */
public interface CodecOperations 
{

  /**
     * Converts the given any into a byte array based on the encoding 
     * format effective for this <code>Codec</code>. 
     *
     * @param data The data, in the form of an any, to be encoded into 
     *     a byte array.
     * @return A byte array containing the encoded Any. This byte array 
     *     contains both the <code>TypeCode</code> and the data of the type.
     * @exception InvalidTypeForEncoding thrown if the type is not valid for 
     *     the encoding format effective for this <code>Codec</code>.
     */
  byte[] encode (org.omg.CORBA.Any data) throws org.omg.IOP.CodecPackage.InvalidTypeForEncoding;

  /**
     * Decodes the given byte array into an Any based on the encoding 
     * format effective for this <code>Codec</code>. 
     * 
     * @param data The data, in the form of a byte array, to be decoded into 
     *     an Any. 
     * @return An Any containing the data from the decoded byte array.
     * @exception FormatMismatch is thrown if the byte array cannot be 
     *     decoded into an Any. 
     */
  org.omg.CORBA.Any decode (byte[] data) throws org.omg.IOP.CodecPackage.FormatMismatch;

  /**
     * Converts the given any into a byte array based on the encoding 
     * format effective for this Codec. Only the data from the Any is 
     * encoded, not the <code>TypeCode</code>. 
     *
     * @param data The data, in the form of an Any, to be encoded into 
     *     a byte array. 
     * @return A byte array containing the data from the encoded any.
     * @exception InvalidTypeForEncoding thrown if the type is not valid for 
     *     the encoding format effective for this <code>Codec</code>.
     */
  byte[] encode_value (org.omg.CORBA.Any data) throws org.omg.IOP.CodecPackage.InvalidTypeForEncoding;

  /**
     * Decodes the given byte array into an Any based on the given 
     * <code>TypeCode</code> and the encoding format effective for 
     * this <code>Codec</code>. 
     *
     * @param data The data, in the form of a byte array, to be decoded 
     *     into an Any. 
     * @param tc The TypeCode to be used to decode the data. 
     * @return An Any containing the data from the decoded byte array.
     * @exception FormatMismatch thrown if the byte array cannot be 
     *     decoded into an Any. 
     */
  org.omg.CORBA.Any decode_value (byte[] data, org.omg.CORBA.TypeCode tc) throws org.omg.IOP.CodecPackage.FormatMismatch, org.omg.IOP.CodecPackage.TypeMismatch;
} // interface CodecOperations