Certificate
public
interface
Certificate
| java.security.Certificate |
This interface was deprecated
in API level 3.
This class is deprecated and subject to removal in a future
version of Java SE. It has been replaced by
java.security.cert.Certificate and related classes.
This is an interface of abstract methods for managing a variety of identity certificates. An identity certificate is a guarantee by a principal that a public key is that of another principal. (A principal represents an entity such as an individual user, a group, or a corporation.)
In particular, this interface is intended to be a common abstraction for constructs that have different formats but important common uses. For example, different types of certificates, such as X.509 certificates and PGP certificates, share general certificate functionality (the need to encode and decode certificates) and some types of information, such as a public key, the principal whose key it is, and the guarantor guaranteeing that the public key is that of the specified principal. So an implementation of X.509 certificates and an implementation of PGP certificates can both utilize the Certificate interface, even though their formats and additional types and amounts of information stored are different.
Important: This interface is useful for cataloging and grouping objects sharing certain common uses. It does not have any semantics of its own. In particular, a Certificate object does not make any statement as to the validity of the binding. It is the duty of the application implementing this interface to verify the certificate and satisfy itself of its validity.
See also:
Summary
Public methods | |
|---|---|
abstract
void
|
decode(InputStream stream)
Decodes a certificate from an input stream. |
abstract
void
|
encode(OutputStream stream)
Encodes the certificate to an output stream in a format that can
be decoded by the |
abstract
String
|
getFormat()
Returns the name of the coding format. |
abstract
Principal
|
getGuarantor()
Returns the guarantor of the certificate, that is, the principal guaranteeing that the public key associated with this certificate is that of the principal associated with this certificate. |
abstract
Principal
|
getPrincipal()
Returns the principal of the principal-key pair being guaranteed by the guarantor. |
abstract
PublicKey
|
getPublicKey()
Returns the key of the principal-key pair being guaranteed by the guarantor. |
abstract
String
|
toString(boolean detailed)
Returns a string that represents the contents of the certificate. |
Public methods
decode
public abstract void decode (InputStream stream)
Decodes a certificate from an input stream. The format should be
that returned by getFormat and produced by
encode.
| Parameters | |
|---|---|
stream |
InputStream: the input stream from which to fetch the data
being decoded. |
| Throws | |
|---|---|
KeyException |
if the certificate is not properly initialized, or data is missing, etc. |
IOException |
if an exception occurs while trying to input the encoded certificate from the input stream. |
See also:
encode
public abstract void encode (OutputStream stream)
Encodes the certificate to an output stream in a format that can
be decoded by the decode method.
| Parameters | |
|---|---|
stream |
OutputStream: the output stream to which to encode the
certificate. |
| Throws | |
|---|---|
KeyException |
if the certificate is not properly initialized, or data is missing, etc. |
IOException |
if a stream exception occurs while trying to output the encoded certificate to the output stream. |
See also:
getFormat
public abstract String getFormat ()
Returns the name of the coding format. This is used as a hint to find
an appropriate parser. It could be "X.509", "PGP", etc. This is
the format produced and understood by the encode
and decode methods.
| Returns | |
|---|---|
String |
the name of the coding format. |
getGuarantor
public abstract Principal getGuarantor ()
Returns the guarantor of the certificate, that is, the principal guaranteeing that the public key associated with this certificate is that of the principal associated with this certificate. For X.509 certificates, the guarantor will typically be a Certificate Authority (such as the United States Postal Service or Verisign, Inc.).
| Returns | |
|---|---|
Principal |
the guarantor which guaranteed the principal-key binding. |
getPrincipal
public abstract Principal getPrincipal ()
Returns the principal of the principal-key pair being guaranteed by the guarantor.
| Returns | |
|---|---|
Principal |
the principal to which this certificate is bound. |
getPublicKey
public abstract PublicKey getPublicKey ()
Returns the key of the principal-key pair being guaranteed by the guarantor.
| Returns | |
|---|---|
PublicKey |
the public key that this certificate certifies belongs to a particular principal. |
toString
public abstract String toString (boolean detailed)
Returns a string that represents the contents of the certificate.
| Parameters | |
|---|---|
detailed |
boolean: whether or not to give detailed information
about the certificate |
| Returns | |
|---|---|
String |
a string representing the contents of the certificate |