/*
 * @(#)TaggedProfileTemplate.java	1.11 03/12/19
 *
 * Copyright 2004 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved.
 * SUN PROPRIETARY/CONFIDENTIAL. Use is subject to license terms.
 */

package com.sun.corba.se.spi.ior;

import java.util.List ;
import java.util.Iterator ;

import org.omg.CORBA_2_3.portable.OutputStream ;

import com.sun.corba.se.spi.ior.Identifiable ;
import com.sun.corba.se.spi.ior.Writeable ;
import com.sun.corba.se.spi.ior.ObjectId ;
import com.sun.corba.se.spi.ior.WriteContents ;

import com.sun.corba.se.spi.orb.ORB ;

/** Base template for creating TaggedProfiles.  A TaggedProfile will often contain
* tagged components.  A template that does not contain components acts like 
* an empty immutable list.
*
* @author Ken Cavanaugh
*/
public interface TaggedProfileTemplate extends List, Identifiable, 
    WriteContents, MakeImmutable
{    
    /** Return an iterator that iterates over tagged components with
    * identifier id.  It is not possible to modify the list through this
    * iterator.  
    */
    public Iterator iteratorById( int id ) ;

    /** Create a TaggedProfile from this template.
    */
    TaggedProfile create( ObjectKeyTemplate oktemp, ObjectId id ) ;

    /** Write the profile create( oktemp, id ) to the OutputStream os.
    */
    void write( ObjectKeyTemplate oktemp, ObjectId id, OutputStream os) ;

    /** Return true if temp is equivalent to this template.  Equivalence
     * means that in some sense an invocation on a profile created by this
     * template has the same results as an invocation on a profile
     * created from temp.  Equivalence may be weaker than equality.  
     */
    boolean isEquivalent( TaggedProfileTemplate temp );

    /** Return the tagged components in this profile (if any)
     * in the GIOP marshalled form, which is required for Portable
     * Interceptors.  Returns null if either the profile has no 
     * components, or if this type of profile can never contain
     * components.
     */
    org.omg.IOP.TaggedComponent[] getIOPComponents( 
	ORB orb, int id );
}