/*
 * Copyright 2001-2004 The Apache Software Foundation.
 * 
 * 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 javax.xml.soap;

/**
 * A point-to-point connection that a client can use for sending messages
 * directly to a remote party (represented by a URL, for instance).
 * <p>
 * A client can obtain a <code>SOAPConnection</code> object simply by
 * calling the following static method.
 * <pre>
 *
 *      SOAPConnection con = SOAPConnection.newInstance();
 * </pre>
 * A <code>SOAPConnection</code> object can be used to send messages
 * directly to a URL following the request/response paradigm.  That is,
 * messages are sent using the method <code>call</code>, which sends the
 * message and then waits until it gets a reply.
 */
public abstract class SOAPConnection {

    public SOAPConnection() {}

    /**
     * Sends the given message to the specified endpoint and
     * blocks until it has returned the response.
     * @param request the <CODE>SOAPMessage</CODE>
     *     object to be sent
     * @param endpoint an <code>Object</code> that identifies
     *            where the message should be sent. It is required to
     *            support Objects of type
     *            <code>java.lang.String</code>,
     *            <code>java.net.URL</code>, and when JAXM is present
     *            <code>javax.xml.messaging.URLEndpoint</code>
     * @return the <CODE>SOAPMessage</CODE> object that is the
     *     response to the message that was sent
     * @throws  SOAPException if there is a SOAP error
     */
    public abstract SOAPMessage call(SOAPMessage request, Object endpoint)
        throws SOAPException;

    /**
     * Closes this <CODE>SOAPConnection</CODE> object.
     * @throws  SOAPException if there is a SOAP error
     */
    public abstract void close() throws SOAPException;
}