core/java/android/os/Parcelable.java

/*
 * Copyright (C) 2006 The Android Open Source Project
 *
 * Licensed 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.
 */

package android.os;

/**
 * Interface for classes whose instances can be written to
 * and restored from a {@link Parcel}.  Classes implementing the Parcelable
 * interface must also have a static field called <code>CREATOR</code>, which
 * is an object implementing the {@link Parcelable.Creator Parcelable.Creator}
 * interface.
 * 
 * <p>A typical implementation of Parcelable is:</p>
 * 
 * <pre>
 * public class MyParcelable implements Parcelable {
 *     private int mData;
 *     
 *     public void writeToParcel(Parcel out, int flags) {
 *         out.writeInt(mData);
 *     }
 *
 *     public static final Parcelable.Creator<MyParcelable> CREATOR
 *             = new Parcelable.Creator<MyParcelable>() {
 *         public MyParcelable createFromParcel(Parcel in) {
 *             return new MyParcelable(in);
 *         }
 *
 *         public MyParcelable[] newArray(int size) {
 *             return new MyParcelable[size];
 *         }
 *     }
 *     
 *     private MyParcelable(Parcel in) {
 *         mData = in.readInt();
 *     }
 * }</pre>
 */
public interface Parcelable {
    /**
     * Flag for use with {@link #writeToParcel}: the object being written
     * is a return value, that is the result of a function such as
     * "<code>Parcelable someFunction()</code>",
     * "<code>void someFunction(out Parcelable)</code>", or
     * "<code>void someFunction(inout Parcelable)</code>".  Some implementations
     * may want to release resources at this point.
     */
    public static final int PARCELABLE_WRITE_RETURN_VALUE = 0x0001;
    
    /**
     * Bit masks for use with {@link #describeContents}: each bit represents a
     * kind of object considered to have potential special significance when
     * marshalled.
     */
    public static final int CONTENTS_FILE_DESCRIPTOR = 0x0001;
    
    /**
     * Describe the kinds of special objects contained in this Parcelable's
     * marshalled representation.
     *  
     * @return a bitmask indicating the set of special object types marshalled
     * by the Parcelable.
     */
    public int describeContents();
    
    /**
     * Flatten this object in to a Parcel.
     * 
     * @param dest The Parcel in which the object should be written.
     * @param flags Additional flags about how the object should be written.
     * May be 0 or {@link #PARCELABLE_WRITE_RETURN_VALUE}.
     */
    public void writeToParcel(Parcel dest, int flags);

    /**
     * Interface that must be implemented and provided as a public CREATOR
     * field that generates instances of your Parcelable class from a Parcel.
     */
    public interface Creator<T> {
        /**
         * Create a new instance of the Parcelable class, instantiating it
         * from the given Parcel whose data had previously been written by
         * {@link Parcelable#writeToParcel Parcelable.writeToParcel()}.
         * 
         * @param source The Parcel to read the object's data from.
         * @return Returns a new instance of the Parcelable class.
         */
        public T createFromParcel(Parcel source);
        
        /**
         * Create a new array of the Parcelable class.
         * 
         * @param size Size of the array.
         * @return Returns an array of the Parcelable class, with every entry
         * initialized to null.
         */
        public T[] newArray(int size);
    }
}