Principal.java

/*
 * Principal.java November 2002
 *
 * Copyright (C) 2002, Niall Gallagher <niallg@users.sf.net>
 *
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or 
 * implied. See the License for the specific language governing 
 * permissions and limitations under the License.
 */

package org.simpleframework.http;

/**
 * The <code>Principal</code> interface is used to describe a user that has a
 * name and password. This should not be confused with the
 * <code>java.security.Principal</code> interface which does not provide
 * <code>getPassword</code>.
 * 
 * @author Niall Gallagher
 */
public interface Principal {

    /**
     * The <code>getPassword</code> method is used to retrieve the password of
     * the principal. This is the password tag in the RFC 2616 Authorization
     * credentials expression.
     * 
     * @return this returns the password for this principal
     */
    String getPassword();

    /**
     * The <code>getName</code> method is used to retreive the name of the
     * principal. This is the name tag in the RFC 2616 Authorization credentials
     * expression.
     * 
     * @return this returns the name of this principal
     */
    String getName();
}