| This interface represents a factory for obtaining the state of an
object for binding.
The JNDI framework allows for object implementations to
be loaded in dynamically via object factories.
For example, when looking up a printer bound in the name space,
if the print service binds printer names to References, the printer
Reference could be used to create a printer object, so that
the caller of lookup can directly operate on the printer object
after the lookup.
An ObjectFactory is responsible
for creating objects of a specific type. In the above example,
you may have a PrinterObjectFactory for creating
Printer objects.
For the reverse process, when an object is bound into the namespace,
JNDI provides state factories.
Continuing with the printer example, suppose the printer object is
updated and rebound:
ctx.rebind("inky", printer);
The service provider for ctx uses a state factory
to obtain the state of printer for binding into its namespace.
A state factory for the Printer type object might return
a more compact object for storage in the naming system.
A state factory must implement the StateFactory interface.
In addition, the factory class must be public and must have a
public constructor that accepts no parameters.
The getStateToBind() method of a state factory may
be invoked multiple times, possibly using different parameters.
The implementation is thread-safe.
StateFactory is intended for use with service providers
that implement only the Context interface.
DirStateFactory is intended for use with service providers
that implement the DirContext interface. | 