panda.codec.Encoder Maven / Gradle / Ivy
package panda.codec;
/**
* Provides the highest level of abstraction for Encoders.
*
* This is the sister interface of {@link Decoder}. Every implementation of Encoder provides this
* common generic interface which allows a user to pass a generic Object to any Encoder
* implementation in the codec package.
*/
public interface Encoder {
/**
* Encodes an "Object" and returns the encoded content as an Object. The Objects here may just
* be byte[] or Strings depending on the implementation used.
*
* @param source An object to encode
* @return An "encoded" Object
* @throws EncoderException An encoder exception is thrown if the encoder experiences a failure
* condition during the encoding process.
*/
Object encode(Object source) throws EncoderException;
}