java.security.cert

Class CertificateFactory

java.lang.Object

java.security.cert.CertificateFactory

public class CertificateFactory
extends Object

Constructor Summary

Constructors

Constructor and Description
CertificateFactory()

Method Summary

Modifier and Type	Method and Description
Certificate	generateCertificate(InputStream inStream) Generates a certificate object and initializes it with the data read from the input stream inStream.
static CertificateFactory	getInstance(String type) Returns a certificate factory object that implements the specified certificate type.
String	getType() Returns the name of the certificate type associated with this certificate factory.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Constructor Detail

CertificateFactory

public CertificateFactory()

Method Detail

getInstance

public static final CertificateFactory getInstance(String type)
                                            throws CertificateException

Returns a certificate factory object that implements the specified certificate type.

This method traverses the list of registered security Providers, starting with the most preferred Provider. A new CertificateFactory object encapsulating the CertificateFactorySpi implementation from the first Provider that supports the specified type is returned.

Parameters:

type - the name of the requested certificate type. See the CertificateFactory section in the Java Cryptography Architecture Standard Algorithm Name Documentation for information about standard certificate types.

Returns:

a certificate factory object for the specified type.

Throws:

CertificateException - if no Provider supports a CertificateFactorySpi implementation for the specified type.

getType

public final String getType()

Returns the name of the certificate type associated with this certificate factory.

Returns:

the name of the certificate type associated with this certificate factory.

generateCertificate

public final Certificate generateCertificate(InputStream inStream)
                                      throws CertificateException

Generates a certificate object and initializes it with the data read from the input stream inStream.

In order to take advantage of the specialized certificate format supported by this certificate factory, the returned certificate object can be typecast to the corresponding certificate class. For example, if this certificate factory implements X.509 certificates, the returned certificate object can be typecast to the X509Certificate class.

In the case of a certificate factory for X.509 certificates, the certificate provided in inStream must be DER-encoded and may be supplied in binary or printable (Base64) encoding. If the certificate is provided in Base64 encoding, it must be bounded at the beginning by -----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----, and must be bounded at the end by -----END CERTIFICATE-----.

Note that if the given input stream does not support mark and reset, this method will consume the entire input stream. Otherwise, each call to this method consumes one certificate and the read position of the input stream is positioned to the next available byte after the inherent end-of-certificate marker. If the data in the input stream does not contain an inherent end-of-certificate marker (other than EOF) and there is trailing data after the certificate is parsed, a CertificateException is thrown.

Parameters:

inStream - an input stream with the certificate data.

Returns:

a certificate object initialized with the data from the input stream.

Throws:

CertificateException - on parsing errors.