/*

 * Copyright (c) 1995, 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

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 */

package java.net;

/**

 * This interface defines a factory for {@code URL} stream

 * protocol handlers.

 *

 * <p> A URL stream handler factory is used as specified in the

 * {@linkplain java.net.URL#URL(String,String,int,String) URL constructor}.

 *

 * @author  Arthur van Hoff

 * @see     java.net.URL

 * @see     java.net.URLStreamHandler

 * @since   1.0

 */

public interface URLStreamHandlerFactory {

    /**

     * Creates a new {@code URLStreamHandler} instance with the specified

     * protocol.

     *

     * @param   protocol   the protocol ("{@code ftp}",

     *                     "{@code http}", "{@code nntp}", etc.).

     * @return  a {@code URLStreamHandler} for the specific protocol, or {@code

     *          null} if this factory cannot create a handler for the specific

     *          protocol

     * @see     java.net.URLStreamHandler

     */

    URLStreamHandler createURLStreamHandler(String protocol);

}