java.security.cert
Class CertificateFactorySpi

java.lang.Object
  |
  +--java.security.cert.CertificateFactorySpi

public abstract class CertificateFactorySpi

extends Object

This class defines the Service Provider Interface (SPI) for the CertificateFactory class. All the abstract methods in this class must be implemented by each cryptographic service provider who wishes to supply the implementation of a certificate factory for a particular certificate type, e.g., X.509.

Certificate factories are used to generate certificate and certificate revocation list (CRL) objects from their encoding.

A certificate factory for X.509 must return certificates that are an instance of java.security.cert.X509Certificate, and CRLs that are an instance of java.security.cert.X509CRL.

Since:

JDK1.2

See Also:

CertificateFactory, Certificate, X509Certificate, CRL, X509CRL

Constructor Summary

CertificateFactorySpi()

Method Summary

abstract Certificate	engineGenerateCertificate(InputStream inStream) Generates a certificate object and initializes it with the data read from the input stream inStream.
abstract Collection	engineGenerateCertificates(InputStream inStream) Returns a (possibly empty) collection view of the certificates read from the given input stream inStream.
abstract CRL	engineGenerateCRL(InputStream inStream) Generates a certificate revocation list (CRL) object and initializes it with the data read from the input stream inStream.
abstract Collection	engineGenerateCRLs(InputStream inStream) Returns a (possibly empty) collection view of the CRLs read from the given input stream inStream.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Constructor Detail

CertificateFactorySpi

public CertificateFactorySpi()

Method Detail

engineGenerateCertificate

public abstract Certificate engineGenerateCertificate(InputStream inStream)
                                               throws CertificateException

Generates a certificate object and initializes it with the data read from the input stream inStream.

The given input stream inStream must contain a single certificate.

In order to take advantage of the specialized certificate format supported by this certificate factory, the returned certificate object can be typecast to the corresponding certificate class. For example, if this certificate factory implements X.509 certificates, the returned certificate object can be typecast to the X509Certificate class.

In the case of a certificate factory for X.509 certificates, the certificate provided in inStream must be DER-encoded and may be supplied in binary or printable (Base64) encoding. If the certificate is provided in Base64 encoding, it must be bounded at the beginning by -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----, and must be bounded at the end by -----END CERTIFICATE-----.

Note that if the given input stream does not support mark and reset, this method will consume the entire input stream.

Parameters:

inStream - an input stream with the certificate data.

Returns:

a certificate object initialized with the data from the input stream.

Throws:

CertificateException - on parsing errors.

engineGenerateCertificates

public abstract Collection engineGenerateCertificates(InputStream inStream)
                                               throws CertificateException

Returns a (possibly empty) collection view of the certificates read from the given input stream inStream.

In order to take advantage of the specialized certificate format supported by this certificate factory, each element in the returned collection view can be typecast to the corresponding certificate class. For example, if this certificate factory implements X.509 certificates, the elements in the returned collection can be typecast to the X509Certificate class.

In the case of a certificate factory for X.509 certificates, inStream may contain a single DER-encoded certificate in the formats described for generateCertificate. In addition, inStream may contain a PKCS#7 certificate chain. This is a PKCS#7 SignedData object, with the only significant field being certificates. In particular, the signature and the contents are ignored. This format allows multiple certificates to be downloaded at once. If no certificates are present, an empty collection is returned.

Note that if the given input stream does not support mark and reset, this method will consume the entire input stream.

Parameters:

inStream - the input stream with the certificates.

Returns:

a (possibly empty) collection view of java.security.cert.Certificate objects initialized with the data from the input stream.

Throws:

CertificateException - on parsing errors.

engineGenerateCRL

public abstract CRL engineGenerateCRL(InputStream inStream)
                               throws CRLException

Generates a certificate revocation list (CRL) object and initializes it with the data read from the input stream inStream.

In order to take advantage of the specialized CRL format supported by this certificate factory, the returned CRL object can be typecast to the corresponding CRL class. For example, if this certificate factory implements X.509 CRLs, the returned CRL object can be typecast to the X509CRL class.

Note that if the given input stream does not support mark and reset, this method will consume the entire input stream.

Parameters:

inStream - an input stream with the CRL data.

Returns:

a CRL object initialized with the data from the input stream.

Throws:

CRLException - on parsing errors.

engineGenerateCRLs

public abstract Collection engineGenerateCRLs(InputStream inStream)
                                       throws CRLException

Returns a (possibly empty) collection view of the CRLs read from the given input stream inStream.

In order to take advantage of the specialized CRL format supported by this certificate factory, each element in the returned collection view can be typecast to the corresponding CRL class. For example, if this certificate factory implements X.509 CRLs, the elements in the returned collection can be typecast to the X509CRL class.

In the case of a certificate factory for X.509 CRLs, inStream may contain a single DER-encoded CRL. In addition, inStream may contain a PKCS#7 CRL set. This is a PKCS#7 SignedData object, with the only significant field being crls. In particular, the signature and the contents are ignored. This format allows multiple CRLs to be downloaded at once. If no CRLs are present, an empty collection is returned.

Note that if the given input stream does not support mark and reset, this method will consume the entire input stream.

Parameters:

inStream - the input stream with the CRLs.

Returns:

a (possibly empty) collection view of java.security.cert.CRL objects initialized with the data from the input stream.

Throws:

CRLException - on parsing errors.