001/* 
002 * This file is part of the Kompics component model runtime.
003 *
004 * Copyright (C) 2009 Swedish Institute of Computer Science (SICS) 
005 * Copyright (C) 2009 Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)
006 *
007 * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
008 * modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
009 * as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
010 * of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
011 *
012 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
013 * but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
014 * MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
015 * GNU General Public License for more details.
016 *
017 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
018 * along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
019 * Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.
020 */
021package se.sics.kompics.network.netty.serialization;
022
023import java.util.Optional;
024import io.netty.buffer.ByteBuf;
025
026/**
027 *
028 * @author Lars Kroll {@literal <[email protected]>}
029 */
030public interface Serializer {
031    /*
032     * Unique ID to differentiate the serializer from others over the network.
033     * 
034     * Identifiers 1-16 are reserved for internal use.
035     * 
036     * Make sure to configure serializers to use enough bytes for your ID to be uniqe!
037     */
038    public int identifier();
039
040    /**
041     * Serialize o into buf.
042     * 
043     * @param o
044     * @param buf
045     */
046    public void toBinary(Object o, ByteBuf buf);
047
048    /**
049     * Deserialize from buf. Optionally use hint to decide what to deserialize.
050     * 
051     * @param buf
052     * @param hint
053     * @return
054     */
055    public Object fromBinary(ByteBuf buf, Optional<Object> hint); // see comment at Serializers.fromBinary
056}