Interface ContentReader

All Superinterfaces:
ContentAccessor
All Known Subinterfaces:
FileContentReader

@AlfrescoPublicApi public interface ContentReader extends ContentAccessor
Represents a handle to read specific content. Content may only be accessed once per instance.

Implementations of this interface might be Serializable but client code could should check suitability before attempting to serialize it.

Implementations that are able to provide inter-VM streaming, such as accessing WebDAV, would be Serializable. An accessor that has to access a local file on the server could not provide inter-VM streaming unless it specifically makes remote calls and opens sockets, etc.

Author:
Derek Hulley
See Also:
  • Method Details

    • getReader

      ContentReader getReader() throws ContentIOException
      Convenience method to get another reader onto the underlying content.
      Returns:
      Returns a reader onto the underlying content
      Throws:
      ContentIOException
    • exists

      boolean exists()
      Check if the underlying content is present.
      Returns:
      Returns true if there is content at the URL refered to by this reader
    • getLastModified

      long getLastModified()
      Gets the time of the last modification of the underlying content.
      Returns:
      Returns the last modification time using the standard long time, or 0L if the content doesn't exist.
      See Also:
    • isClosed

      boolean isClosed()
      Convenience method to find out if this reader has been closed. Once closed, the content can no longer be read. This method could be used to wait for a particular read operation to complete, for example.
      Returns:
      Return true if the content input stream has been used and closed otherwise false.
    • getReadableChannel

      ReadableByteChannel getReadableChannel() throws ContentIOException
      Provides low-level access to the underlying content.

      Once the stream is provided to a client it should remain active (subject to any timeouts) until closed by the client.

      Returns:
      Returns a stream that can be read at will, but must be closed when completed
      Throws:
      ContentIOException
    • getFileChannel

      FileChannel getFileChannel() throws ContentIOException
      Provides read-only, random-access to the underlying content. In general, this method should be considered more expensive than the sequential-access method, getReadableChannel().
      Returns:
      Returns a random-access channel onto the content
      Throws:
      ContentIOException
      See Also:
    • getContentInputStream

      InputStream getContentInputStream() throws ContentIOException
      Get a stream to read from the underlying channel
      Returns:
      Returns an input stream onto the underlying channel
      Throws:
      ContentIOException
      See Also:
    • getContent

      void getContent(OutputStream os) throws ContentIOException
      Gets content from the repository.

      All resources will be closed automatically.

      Care must be taken that the bytes read from the stream are properly decoded according to the encoding property.

      Parameters:
      os - the stream to which to write the content
      Throws:
      ContentIOException
      See Also:
    • getContent

      void getContent(File file) throws ContentIOException
      Gets content from the repository direct to file

      All resources will be closed automatically.

      Parameters:
      file - the file to write the content to - it will be overwritten
      Throws:
      ContentIOException
      See Also:
    • getContentString

      String getContentString() throws ContentIOException
      Gets content from the repository direct to String.

      If the encoding is known then it will be used otherwise the default system byte[] to String conversion will be used.

      All resources will be closed automatically.

      WARNING: This should only be used when the size of the content is known in advance.

      Returns:
      Returns a String representation of the content
      Throws:
      ContentIOException
      See Also:
    • getContentString

      String getContentString(int length) throws ContentIOException
      Gets content from the repository direct to String, but limiting the string size to a given number of characters.

      If the encoding is known then it will be used otherwise the default system byte[] to String conversion will be used.

      All resources will be closed automatically.

      Parameters:
      length - the maximum number of characters to retrieve
      Returns:
      Returns a truncated String representation of the content
      Throws:
      ContentIOException
      IllegalArgumentException - if the length is < 0 or > Integer.MAX_VALUE
      See Also: