OpenNxSerialization

/*
 * @(#)NxObjectInput.java	1.0
 *
 * Created on September 18, 2008, 12:59 PM
 *
 * Copyright 2008 NeXtreme Innovations, Inc. All rights reserved.
 * "NeXtreme Innovations" PROPRIETARY/CONFIDENTIAL. Use is subject
 * to license terms.
 */

package com.nextreme.opennxserialization.core.io;

import java.io.ObjectInput;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;

/**
 * NxObjectInput extends the ObjectInput interface to include the reading of
 * objects as instances of different types. 
 *
 * @version 1.0, September 18, 2008
 */
public interface NxObjectInput extends ObjectInput 
{
    /**
     * Returns the current <see cref="NxSerializationContext"/> object.
     *
     * @return the current serialzation context
     */
    public NxSerializationContext getContext();

    /**
     * Returns the underlying InputStream object. 
     */
    public InputStream getBaseStream();
    
    /**
     * Read and return an object. The class that implements this interface
     * defines where the object is "read" from.
     *
     * @param objClass the class surrogate to use for reading the object.
     * @return the object read from the stream
     * @exception java.lang.ClassNotFoundException If the class of a serialized
     *      object cannot be found.
     * @exception IOException If any of the usual Input/Output
     * related exceptions occur.
     */
    public Object readObjectAs(Class objClass)
	throws ClassNotFoundException, IOException;
}