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/*
 * This file is part of Awake File. 
 * Awake file: Easy file upload & download over HTTP with Java.                                    
 * Copyright (C) 2013,  KawanSoft SAS
 * (http://www.kawansoft.com). All rights reserved.                                
 *                                                                               
 * Awake File is free software; you can redistribute it and/or                 
 * modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public                    
 * License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either                  
 * version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.            
 *                                                                               
 * Awake File is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,               
 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of                
 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU             
 * Lesser General Public License for more details.                               
 *                                                                               
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public              
 * License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software           
 * Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  
 * 02110-1301  USA
 *
 * Any modifications to this file must keep this entire header
 * intact.
 */
package org.awakefw.commons.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 whic allows a user to pass a 
 * generic Object to any Encoder implementation in the codec package.
 *
 * @author Apache Software Foundation
 * @version $Id: Encoder.java 634915 2008-03-08 09:30:25Z bayard $
 */
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 pObject An object ot 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 pObject) throws EncoderException;
}