/*
 * Container.java February 2001
 *
 * Copyright (C) 2001, 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.core;

import org.simpleframework.http.Request;
import org.simpleframework.http.Response;

/**
 * The <code>Container</code> object is used to process HTTP requests and
 * compose HTTP responses. The <code>Request</code> objects that are handed to
 * this container contain all information relating to the received message. The
 * responsibility of the container is to interpret the request and compose a
 * suitable response.
 * <p>
 * All implementations must ensure that the container is thread safe as it will
 * receive multiple HTTP transactions concurrently. Also it should be known that
 * the <code>Response</code> object used to deliver the HTTP response will only
 * commit and send once it has its <code>OutputStream</code> closed.
 * <p>
 * The <code>Container</code> is entirely responsible for the HTTP message
 * headers and body. It is up to the implementation to ensure that it complies
 * to RFC 2616 or any previous specification. All headers and the status line
 * can be modified by this object.
 * 
 * @author Niall Gallagher
 */
public interface Container {

    /**
     * Used to pass the <code>Request</code> and <code>Response</code> to the
     * container for processing. Any implementation of this must ensure that
     * this is thread safe, as it will receive many concurrent invocations each
     * with a unique HTTP request.
     * <p>
     * The request and response objects are used to interact with the connected
     * pipeline, in such a way that requests and response objects can be
     * delivered in sequence and without interference. The next request from a
     * HTTP pipeline is only processed once the <code>Response</code> object has
     * been closed and committed.
     * 
     * @param req
     *            the request that contains the client HTTP message
     * @param resp
     *            the response used to deliver the server response
     */
    void handle(Request req, Response resp);
}