/*

Authors: Alexander Elyasov, Arie Middelkoop

Copyright 2011 Utrecht University

The use of this sofware is free under the Modified BSD License.

*/

package UU.ISerialization {	

	// An instance of Serializer is passed to each object's specific serialization method.
	// The responsibility of the serializer is to store the values passed to it. The
	// responsibility of the Serializable object is to specify what needs to be stored.
    
	public interface Serializer {
	
        // Tells the serializer that we start with serializing a certain object.
		function beginObject(obj : Object, objType : String) : void;
		
		// Tells the serializer that we stopped serializing the object.
		// Calls to beginObject and endObject may be nested, but must be balanced.
		function endObject() : void;
		
		// Stores the field of the object mentioned by the latest 'beginObject'.
		function storeField(name : QName, val : Object) : void;
		
		// Should be called after the seralization of an object graph.
		function reset() : void;
        
        // To serialize an arbitrary object. This implies that the object may not
        // implement Serializable.
        function serialize(obj : Object) : void ;
        
    }
}