/*

 * Copyright (c) 2003, 2006, 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 sun.nio;

import java.nio.ByteBuffer;

import java.io.IOException;

/** This is an interface to adapt existing APIs to use {@link java.nio.ByteBuffer

 *  ByteBuffers} as the underlying

 *  data format.  Only the initial producer and final consumer have to be changed.<p>

 *

 *  For example, the Zip/Jar code supports {@link java.io.InputStream InputStreams}.

 *  To make the Zip code use {@link java.nio.MappedByteBuffer MappedByteBuffers} as

 *  the underlying data structure, it can create a class of InputStream that wraps the ByteBuffer,

 *  and implements the ByteBuffered interface. A co-operating class several layers

 *  away can ask the InputStream if it is an instance of ByteBuffered, then

 *  call the {@link #getByteBuffer()} method.

 */

public interface ByteBuffered {

     /**

     * Returns the {@code ByteBuffer} behind this object, if this particular

     * instance has one. An implementation of {@code getByteBuffer()} is allowed

     * to return {@code null} for any reason.

     *

     * @return  The {@code ByteBuffer}, if this particular instance has one,

     *          or {@code null} otherwise.

     *

     * @throws  IOException

     *          If the ByteBuffer is no longer valid.

     *

     * @since  1.5

     */

    public ByteBuffer getByteBuffer() throws IOException;

}