001/**
002 *
003 * Copyright 2013-2018 Florian Schmaus
004 *
005 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
006 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
007 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
008 *
009 *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
010 *
011 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
012 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
013 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
014 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
015 * limitations under the License.
016 */
017package org.jivesoftware.smack.util.stringencoder;
018
019/**
020 * An interface for String encoder.
021 *
022 * @author Florian Schmaus
023 */
024public interface StringEncoder<O> {
025    /**
026     * Encodes an object to another representation.
027     *
028     * @param object the object to encode.
029     * @return the encoded String
030     */
031    String encode(O object);
032
033    /**
034     * Decodes a string back to it's initial representation.
035     *
036     * @param string the string to decode.
037     * @return the decoded object
038     */
039    O decode(String string);
040}