Connection.java

/*
 * Connection.java October 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.transport.connect;

import java.io.Closeable;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.SocketAddress;

import javax.net.ssl.SSLContext;

/**
 * The <code>Connection</code> object is used to manage connections from a
 * server socket. In order to achieve this it spawns a task to listen for
 * incoming connect requests. When a TCP connection request arrives it hands off
 * the <code>SocketChannel</code> to the <code>Server</code> which processes the
 * request.
 * <p>
 * This handles connections from a <code>ServerSocketChannel</code> object so
 * that features such as SSL can be used by a server that uses this package. The
 * background acceptor process will terminate if the connection is closed.
 * 
 * @author Niall Gallagher
 * 
 * @see org.simpleframework.transport.Server
 */
public interface Connection extends Closeable {

    /**
     * This creates a new background task that will listen to the specified
     * <code>ServerAddress</code> for incoming TCP connect requests. When an
     * connection is accepted it is handed to the internal <code>Server</code>
     * implementation as a pipeline. The background task is a non daemon task to
     * ensure the server is kept active, to terminate the connection this can be
     * closed.
     * 
     * @param address
     *            this is the address used to accept connections
     * 
     * @return this returns the actual local address that is used
     */
    SocketAddress connect(SocketAddress address) throws IOException;

    /**
     * This creates a new background task that will listen to the specified
     * <code>ServerAddress</code> for incoming TCP connect requests. When an
     * connection is accepted it is handed to the internal <code>Server</code>
     * implementation as a pipeline. The background task is a non daemon task to
     * ensure the server is kept active, to terminate the connection this can be
     * closed.
     * 
     * @param address
     *            this is the address used to accept connections
     * @param context
     *            this is used for secure SSL connections
     * 
     * @return this returns the actual local address that is used
     */
    SocketAddress connect(SocketAddress address, SSLContext context)
            throws IOException;
}