/*
 * Copyright 1999-2006 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.
 * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
 *
 * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
 * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as
 * published by the Free Software Foundation.  Sun designates this
 * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided
 * by Sun in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code.
 *
 * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
 * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
 * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that
 * accompanied this code).
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version
 * 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
 * Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
 *
 * Please contact Sun Microsystems, Inc., 4150 Network Circle, Santa Clara,
 * CA 95054 USA or visit www.sun.com if you need additional information or
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 */

package java.lang.reflect;

/**
 * {@code InvocationHandler} is the interface implemented by
 * the <i>invocation handler</i> of a proxy instance.
 *
 * <p>Each proxy instance has an associated invocation handler.
 * When a method is invoked on a proxy instance, the method
 * invocation is encoded and dispatched to the {@code invoke}
 * method of its invocation handler.
 *
 * @author      Peter Jones
 * @see         Proxy
 * @since       1.3
 */
public interface InvocationHandler {

    /**
     * Processes a method invocation on a proxy instance and returns
     * the result.  This method will be invoked on an invocation handler
     * when a method is invoked on a proxy instance that it is
     * associated with.
     *
     * @param   proxy the proxy instance that the method was invoked on
     *
     * @param   method the {@code Method} instance corresponding to
     * the interface method invoked on the proxy instance.  The declaring
     * class of the {@code Method} object will be the interface that
     * the method was declared in, which may be a superinterface of the
     * proxy interface that the proxy class inherits the method through.
     *
     * @param   args an array of objects containing the values of the
     * arguments passed in the method invocation on the proxy instance,
     * or {@code null} if interface method takes no arguments.
     * Arguments of primitive types are wrapped in instances of the
     * appropriate primitive wrapper class, such as
     * {@code java.lang.Integer} or {@code java.lang.Boolean}.
     *
     * @return  the value to return from the method invocation on the
     * proxy instance.  If the declared return type of the interface
     * method is a primitive type, then the value returned by
     * this method must be an instance of the corresponding primitive
     * wrapper class; otherwise, it must be a type assignable to the
     * declared return type.  If the value returned by this method is
     * {@code null} and the interface method's return type is
     * primitive, then a {@code NullPointerException} will be
     * thrown by the method invocation on the proxy instance.  If the
     * value returned by this method is otherwise not compatible with
     * the interface method's declared return type as described above,
     * a {@code ClassCastException} will be thrown by the method
     * invocation on the proxy instance.
     *
     * @throws  Throwable the exception to throw from the method
     * invocation on the proxy instance.  The exception's type must be
     * assignable either to any of the exception types declared in the
     * {@code throws} clause of the interface method or to the
     * unchecked exception types {@code java.lang.RuntimeException}
     * or {@code java.lang.Error}.  If a checked exception is
     * thrown by this method that is not assignable to any of the
     * exception types declared in the {@code throws} clause of
     * the interface method, then an
     * {@link UndeclaredThrowableException} containing the
     * exception that was thrown by this method will be thrown by the
     * method invocation on the proxy instance.
     *
     * @see     UndeclaredThrowableException
     */
    public Object invoke(Object proxy, Method method, Object[] args)
        throws Throwable;
}