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 * Copyright (c) 1999, 2004, 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.

 *

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package javax.naming.spi;

import java.util.Hashtable;

import javax.naming.NamingException;

 /**

  * This interface represents a builder that creates object factories.

  *<p>

  * The JNDI framework allows for object implementations to

  * be loaded in dynamically via <em>object factories</em>.

  * For example, when looking up a printer bound in the name space,

  * if the print service binds printer names to References, the printer

  * Reference could be used to create a printer object, so that

  * the caller of lookup can directly operate on the printer object

  * after the lookup.  An ObjectFactory is responsible for creating

  * objects of a specific type.  JNDI uses a default policy for using

  * and loading object factories.  You can override this default policy

  * by calling <tt>NamingManager.setObjectFactoryBuilder()</tt> with an ObjectFactoryBuilder,

  * which contains the program-defined way of creating/loading

  * object factories.

  * Any <tt>ObjectFactoryBuilder</tt> implementation must implement this

  * interface that for creating object factories.

  *

  * @author Rosanna Lee

  * @author Scott Seligman

  *

  * @see ObjectFactory

  * @see NamingManager#getObjectInstance

  * @see NamingManager#setObjectFactoryBuilder

  * @since 1.3

  */

public interface ObjectFactoryBuilder {

    /**

      * Creates a new object factory using the environment supplied.

      *<p>

      * The environment parameter is owned by the caller.

      * The implementation will not modify the object or keep a reference

      * to it, although it may keep a reference to a clone or copy.

      *

      * @param obj The possibly null object for which to create a factory.

      * @param environment Environment to use when creating the factory.

      *                 Can be null.

      * @return A non-null new instance of an ObjectFactory.

      * @exception NamingException If an object factory cannot be created.

      *

      */

    public ObjectFactory createObjectFactory(Object obj,

                                             Hashtable<?,?> environment)

        throws NamingException;

}