/*
 * $HeadURL: http://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/httpcomponents/httpcore/trunk/module-main/src/main/java/org/apache/http/message/LineParser.java $
 * $Revision: 589374 $
 * $Date: 2007-10-28 09:25:07 -0700 (Sun, 28 Oct 2007) $
 *
 * ====================================================================
 * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one
 * or more contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file
 * distributed with this work for additional information
 * regarding copyright ownership.  The ASF licenses this file
 * to you 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.
 * ====================================================================
 *
 * This software consists of voluntary contributions made by many
 * individuals on behalf of the Apache Software Foundation.  For more
 * information on the Apache Software Foundation, please see
 * <http://www.apache.org/>.
 *
 */

package org.apache.http.message;


import org.apache.http.ProtocolVersion;
import org.apache.http.ParseException;
import org.apache.http.RequestLine;
import org.apache.http.StatusLine;
import org.apache.http.Header;
import org.apache.http.util.CharArrayBuffer;


/**
 * Interface for parsing lines in the HEAD section of an HTTP message.
 * There are individual methods for parsing a request line, a
 * status line, or a header line.
 * The lines to parse are passed in memory, the parser does not depend
 * on any specific IO mechanism.
 * Instances of this interface are expected to be stateless and thread-safe.
 *
 * @author <a href="mailto:rolandw AT apache.org">Roland Weber</a>
 *
 *
 * <!-- empty lines above to avoid 'svn diff' context problems -->
 * @version $Revision: 589374 $ $Date: 2007-10-28 09:25:07 -0700 (Sun, 28 Oct 2007) $
 *
 * @since 4.0
 */
public interface LineParser {


    /**
     * Parses the textual representation of a protocol version.
     * This is needed for parsing request lines (last element)
     * as well as status lines (first element).
     *
     * @param buffer    a buffer holding the protocol version to parse
     * @param cursor    the parser cursor containing the current position and 
     *                  the bounds within the buffer for the parsing operation
     * 
     * @return  the parsed protocol version
     *
     * @throws ParseException        in case of a parse error
     */
    ProtocolVersion parseProtocolVersion(
            CharArrayBuffer buffer,
            ParserCursor cursor) throws ParseException;


    /**
     * Checks whether there likely is a protocol version in a line.
     * This method implements a <i>heuristic</i> to check for a
     * likely protocol version specification. It does <i>not</i>
     * guarantee that {@link #parseProtocolVersion} would not
     * detect a parse error.
     * This can be used to detect garbage lines before a request
     * or status line.
     *
     * @param buffer    a buffer holding the line to inspect
     * @param cursor    the cursor at which to check for a protocol version, or
     *                  negative for "end of line". Whether the check tolerates
     *                  whitespace before or after the protocol version is
     *                  implementation dependent.
     *
     * @return  <code>true</code> if there is a protocol version at the
     *          argument index (possibly ignoring whitespace),
     *          <code>false</code> otherwise
     */
    boolean hasProtocolVersion(
            CharArrayBuffer buffer, 
            ParserCursor cursor);


    /**
     * Parses a request line.
     *
     * @param buffer    a buffer holding the line to parse
     * @param cursor    the parser cursor containing the current position and 
     *                  the bounds within the buffer for the parsing operation
     *
     * @return  the parsed request line
     *
     * @throws ParseException        in case of a parse error
     */
    RequestLine parseRequestLine(
            CharArrayBuffer buffer,
            ParserCursor cursor) throws ParseException;


    /**
     * Parses a status line.
     *
     * @param buffer    a buffer holding the line to parse
     * @param cursor    the parser cursor containing the current position and 
     *                  the bounds within the buffer for the parsing operation
     *
     * @return  the parsed status line
     *
     * @throws ParseException        in case of a parse error
     */
    StatusLine parseStatusLine(
            CharArrayBuffer buffer,
            ParserCursor cursor) throws ParseException;


    /**
     * Creates a header from a line.
     * The full header line is expected here. Header continuation lines
     * must be joined by the caller before invoking this method.
     *
     * @param buffer    a buffer holding the full header line.
     *                  This buffer MUST NOT be re-used afterwards, since
     *                  the returned object may reference the contents later.
     *
     * @return  the header in the argument buffer.
     *          The returned object MAY be a wrapper for the argument buffer.
     *          The argument buffer MUST NOT be re-used or changed afterwards.
     *
     * @throws ParseException        in case of a parse error
     */
    Header parseHeader(CharArrayBuffer buffer)
        throws ParseException
        ;


}