ExtendedAttribute (Alluxio Core - Common Utilities 2.5.0 API)

Type Parameters:

T - The type of object to encode/decode

All Known Implementing Classes:

AbstractExtendedAttribute
```
public interface ExtendedAttribute<T>
```
This class defines an interface for implementing an extended attribute which can be stored on inodes. Attributes are stored on inodes as a simple array of byte and define their implementations for encoding/decoding

Nested Class Summary

Nested Classes
Modifier and Type Interface Description

static class ExtendedAttribute.NamespacePrefix
The namespace for extended attributes.

Method Summary

All Methods Instance Methods Abstract Methods
Modifier and Type	Method	Description
`T`	`decode(byte[] bytes)`	Decode an object from a single byte string.
`byte[]`	`encode(T object)`	Encode a single object into a byte string.
`java.lang.String`	`getIdentifier()`
`java.lang.String`	`getName()`
`java.lang.String`	`getNamespace()`

- Method Detail
  - getName
```
java.lang.String getName()
```
    Returns:
    
    the full attribute with namespace and identifier
  - getNamespace
```
java.lang.String getNamespace()
```
    Returns:
    
    the namespace of the attribute lies within
  - getIdentifier
```
java.lang.String getIdentifier()
```
    Returns:
    
    the identifier within the namespace of the attribute
  - encode
```
byte[] encode(T object)
```
    Encode a single object into a byte string.
    
    Parameters:
    
    object - the object to encode
    
    Returns:
    
    the byte representation of the object
  - decode
```
T decode(byte[] bytes)
  throws java.io.IOException
```
    Decode an object from a single byte string.
    
    Parameters:
    
    bytes - the bytes to decode into a single instance of
    
    Returns:
    
    the instance of the decoded object
    
    Throws:
    
    java.io.IOException - if the size of the byte string isn't equal to the encoding length