DataObject

Java Interface

/**
 * A general interface for data objects. A data object consists of an identifier,
 * binary content and metadata.
 */
public interface DataObject {

	/**
	 * Gets the data object's primary identifier.
	 * 
	 * @return An identifier for this data object.
	 */
	public URI getID();

        /**
         * Returns the byte size of the represented resource. This has been defined at
         * this global level due to the importance of this attribute for performance reasons.
         * @return the size of the binary resource in bytes, or a negative value when the
         * size is unknown or does not make sense for this particular DataObject implementation.
         */
        public long getSize();

        /**
         * Gets the DataSource from which this DataObject conceptually originated.
         * 
         * @return The DataSource from which this DataObject conceptually originated.
         */
        public DataSource getDataSource();
    
        /**
         * Gets the data object's parent, if any.
         * 
         * @return the parent DataObject, or null when this DataObject has no parent.
         */
        public DataObject getParent();
    
        /**
         * Gets the data object's children, if any. This may be null to indicate that there
         * are no children. 
         */
        public Iterator<DataObject> getChildren();
    
	/**
	 * Gets an InputStream containing the content represented by the DataObject.
         * The returned InputStream is required to support marking (markSupported()
	 * returns true). Calling this method multiple times may references to
	 * one-and-the-same InputStream instance. Care should therefore be taken to mark
         * and reset the stream when the stream's content is to be read again later.
         * 
	 * @return An InputStream from which the content of the data object can be read.
	 * @throws IOException If an I/O error occurred.
	 */
	public InputStream getContent() throws IOException;

        /**
         * Instructs the DataObject that its content stream will most likely be used multiple
         * times in its entirety, making the mark-and-reset procedure difficult to work, 
         * and that it better should cache the entire contents.
         * @throws IOException when an IOException occured during caching of the content.
         */
 ´      public void cacheContent() throws IOException;
    
	/**
	 * Get the source-specific metadata.
         * The used keys and values and implementation-dependent. 
	 * 
	 * @return The scheme-specific metadata.
	 */
	public Map<Object, Object> getMetaData();
}