/*
 * 
 * Copyright 2004 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
 * 
 * The contents of this file are subject to the Sun Community Source
 * License v3.0/Jini Technology Specific Attachment v 1.0 (the
 * "License"). You may not use this file except in compliance with the
 * License. You may obtain a copy of the License at
 * http://wwws.sun.com/software/jini/licensing/SCSL3_JiniTSA1.html.
 * Software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS"
 * basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See
 * the License for the specific language governing rights and limitations
 * under the License.
 * 
 * The Reference Code is Jini Technology Core Platform code, v2.0. The
 * Developer of the Reference Code is Sun Microsystems, Inc.
 * 
 * Contributor(s): Sun Microsystems, Inc.
 * 
 * The contents of this file comply with the Jini Technology Core
 * Platform Compatibility Kit, v2.0A.
 * 
 * Tester(s): Sun Microsystems, Inc.
 * 
 * Test Platform(s):
 * Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition, Version 1.4.2_03 for Solaris(TM)SPARC/x86
 * Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition, Version 1.4.2_03 for Linux (Intel x86)
 * Java 2 SDK, Standard Edition, Version 1.4.2_03 for Windows (Intel Platform)
 * 
 */

package net.jini.jeri;

/**
 * A callback object for processing inbound requests.
 *
 * <p>Requests received on a {@link ServerEndpoint.ListenEndpoint
 * ListenEndpoint} will be dispatched to the instance of this
 * interface that was passed to the endpoint's {@link
 * ServerEndpoint.ListenEndpoint#listen listen} method.
 *
 * @author Sun Microsystems, Inc.
 * @since 2.0
 **/
public interface RequestDispatcher {

    /**
     * Processes an inbound request.
     *
     * <p>The supplied <code>InboundRequest</code> is used to read the
     * request data and to write the response.  The request is
     * processed in the current thread; this method does not return
     * until it is done processing the request.
     *
     * <p>After the invocation of this method completes (either by
     * returning normally or by throwing an exception), the supplied
     * <code>InboundRequest</code> will be automatically terminated
     * (see {@link InboundRequest#abort}).  If this method completes
     * before the <code>close</code> method has been invoked on the
     * stream returned by the request's {@link
     * InboundRequest#getResponseOutputStream getResponseOutputStream}
     * method, there is no guarantee that any or none of the data
     * written to the stream will be delivered; the implication is
     * that the implementation of this method is no longer interested
     * in the successful delivery of the response.
     *
     * @param request the <code>InboundRequest</code> to use to read
     * the request data and write the response
     *
     * @throws NullPointerException if <code>request</code> is
     * <code>null</code>
     **/
    void dispatch(InboundRequest request);
}
