Added in API level 1
Deprecated in API level 3

Certificate

public interface Certificate

java.security.Certificate


This interface was deprecated in API level 3.
This class is deprecated and subject to removal in a future version of Java SE. It has been replaced by java.security.cert.Certificate and related classes.

This is an interface of abstract methods for managing a variety of identity certificates. An identity certificate is a guarantee by a principal that a public key is that of another principal. (A principal represents an entity such as an individual user, a group, or a corporation.)

In particular, this interface is intended to be a common abstraction for constructs that have different formats but important common uses. For example, different types of certificates, such as X.509 certificates and PGP certificates, share general certificate functionality (the need to encode and decode certificates) and some types of information, such as a public key, the principal whose key it is, and the guarantor guaranteeing that the public key is that of the specified principal. So an implementation of X.509 certificates and an implementation of PGP certificates can both utilize the Certificate interface, even though their formats and additional types and amounts of information stored are different.

Important: This interface is useful for cataloging and grouping objects sharing certain common uses. It does not have any semantics of its own. In particular, a Certificate object does not make any statement as to the validity of the binding. It is the duty of the application implementing this interface to verify the certificate and satisfy itself of its validity.

See also:

Summary

Public methods

abstract void decode(InputStream stream)

Decodes a certificate from an input stream.

abstract void encode(OutputStream stream)

Encodes the certificate to an output stream in a format that can be decoded by the decode method.

abstract String getFormat()

Returns the name of the coding format.

abstract Principal getGuarantor()

Returns the guarantor of the certificate, that is, the principal guaranteeing that the public key associated with this certificate is that of the principal associated with this certificate.

abstract Principal getPrincipal()

Returns the principal of the principal-key pair being guaranteed by the guarantor.

abstract PublicKey getPublicKey()

Returns the key of the principal-key pair being guaranteed by the guarantor.

abstract String toString(boolean detailed)

Returns a string that represents the contents of the certificate.

Public methods

decode

Added in API level 1
public abstract void decode (InputStream stream)

Decodes a certificate from an input stream. The format should be that returned by getFormat and produced by encode.

Parameters
stream InputStream: the input stream from which to fetch the data being decoded.

Throws
KeyException if the certificate is not properly initialized, or data is missing, etc.
IOException if an exception occurs while trying to input the encoded certificate from the input stream.

encode

Added in API level 1
public abstract void encode (OutputStream stream)

Encodes the certificate to an output stream in a format that can be decoded by the decode method.

Parameters
stream OutputStream: the output stream to which to encode the certificate.

Throws
KeyException if the certificate is not properly initialized, or data is missing, etc.
IOException if a stream exception occurs while trying to output the encoded certificate to the output stream.

getFormat

Added in API level 1
public abstract String getFormat ()

Returns the name of the coding format. This is used as a hint to find an appropriate parser. It could be "X.509", "PGP", etc. This is the format produced and understood by the encode and decode methods.

Returns
String the name of the coding format.

getGuarantor

Added in API level 1
public abstract Principal getGuarantor ()

Returns the guarantor of the certificate, that is, the principal guaranteeing that the public key associated with this certificate is that of the principal associated with this certificate. For X.509 certificates, the guarantor will typically be a Certificate Authority (such as the United States Postal Service or Verisign, Inc.).

Returns
Principal the guarantor which guaranteed the principal-key binding.

getPrincipal

Added in API level 1
public abstract Principal getPrincipal ()

Returns the principal of the principal-key pair being guaranteed by the guarantor.

Returns
Principal the principal to which this certificate is bound.

getPublicKey

Added in API level 1
public abstract PublicKey getPublicKey ()

Returns the key of the principal-key pair being guaranteed by the guarantor.

Returns
PublicKey the public key that this certificate certifies belongs to a particular principal.

toString

Added in API level 1
public abstract String toString (boolean detailed)

Returns a string that represents the contents of the certificate.

Parameters
detailed boolean: whether or not to give detailed information about the certificate

Returns
String a string representing the contents of the certificate