/*
 * Copyright 2005 Werner Guttmann
 *
 * 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.exolab.castor.xml;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.OutputStream;
import java.io.Writer;

import org.xml.sax.DocumentHandler;

/**
 * Interface contract for XML serialization business.
 * 
 * @author Werner Guttmann
 */
public interface Serializer {

  /**
   * Sets the OutputCharStream to use.
   * 
   * @param out the OutputCharStream to use.
   */
  void setOutputCharStream(Writer out);

  /**
   * Returns the {@link DocumentHandler} to use for serialization.
   * 
   * @return the DocumentHandler to use for serialization.
   * @throws IOException
   */
  DocumentHandler asDocumentHandler() throws IOException;

  /**
   * Sets the {@link OutputFormat} to use during serialization.
   * 
   * @param format The output format to use.
   */
  void setOutputFormat(OutputFormat format);

  /**
   * Sets the {@link OutputStream} to use.
   * 
   * @param output the OutputStream to use
   */
  void setOutputByteStream(OutputStream output);
}
