- All Implemented Interfaces:
Serializable
This is an abstract class that defines the methods common to all
CertPath
s. Subclasses can handle different kinds of
certificates (X.509, PGP, etc.).
All CertPath
objects have a type, a list of
Certificate
s, and one or more supported encodings. Because the
CertPath
class is immutable, a CertPath
cannot
change in any externally visible way after being constructed. This
stipulation applies to all public fields and methods of this class and any
added or overridden by subclasses.
The type is a String
that identifies the type of
Certificate
s in the certification path. For each
certificate cert
in a certification path certPath
,
cert.getType().equals(certPath.getType())
must be
true
.
The list of Certificate
s is an ordered List
of
zero or more Certificate
s. This List
and all
of the Certificate
s contained in it must be immutable.
Each CertPath
object must support one or more encodings
so that the object can be translated into a byte array for storage or
transmission to other parties. Preferably, these encodings should be
well-documented standards (such as PKCS#7). One of the encodings supported
by a CertPath
is considered the default encoding. This
encoding is used if no encoding is explicitly requested (for the
getEncoded()
method, for instance).
All CertPath
objects are also Serializable
.
CertPath
objects are resolved into an alternate
CertPathRep
object during serialization. This allows
a CertPath
object to be serialized into an equivalent
representation regardless of its underlying implementation.
CertPath
objects can be created with a
CertificateFactory
or they can be returned by other classes,
such as a CertPathBuilder
.
By convention, X.509 CertPath
s (consisting of
X509Certificate
s), are ordered starting with the target
certificate and ending with a certificate issued by the trust anchor. That
is, the issuer of one certificate is the subject of the following one. The
certificate representing the TrustAnchor
should not be
included in the certification path. Unvalidated X.509 CertPath
s
may not follow these conventions. PKIX CertPathValidator
s will
detect any departure from these conventions that cause the certification
path to be invalid and throw a CertPathValidatorException
.
Every implementation of the Java platform is required to support the
following standard CertPath
encodings:
PKCS7
PkiPath
Concurrent Access
All CertPath
objects must be thread-safe. That is, multiple
threads may concurrently invoke the methods defined in this class on a
single CertPath
object (or more than one) with no
ill effects. This is also true for the List
returned by
CertPath.getCertificates
.
Requiring CertPath
objects to be immutable and thread-safe
allows them to be passed around to various pieces of code without worrying
about coordinating access. Providing this thread-safety is
generally not difficult, since the CertPath
and
List
objects in question are immutable.
- Since:
- 1.4
- See Also:
-
Nested Class Summary
Modifier and TypeClassDescriptionprotected static class
AlternateCertPath
class for serialization. -
Constructor Summary
-
Method Summary
Modifier and TypeMethodDescriptionboolean
Compares this certification path for equality with the specified object.abstract List
<? extends Certificate> Returns the list of certificates in this certification path.abstract byte[]
Returns the encoded form of this certification path, using the default encoding.abstract byte[]
getEncoded
(String encoding) Returns the encoded form of this certification path, using the specified encoding.Returns an iteration of the encodings supported by this certification path, with the default encoding first.getType()
Returns the type ofCertificate
s in this certification path.int
hashCode()
Returns the hashcode for this certification path.toString()
Returns a string representation of this certification path.protected Object
Replaces theCertPath
to be serialized with aCertPathRep
object containing theCertificate
type and encoded bytes of theCertPath
.
-
Constructor Details
-
CertPath
Creates aCertPath
of the specified type.This constructor is protected because most users should use a
CertificateFactory
to createCertPath
s.- Parameters:
type
- the standard name of the type ofCertificate
s in this path
-
-
Method Details
-
getType
Returns the type ofCertificate
s in this certification path. This is the same string that would be returned bycert.getType()
for allCertificate
s in the certification path.- Returns:
- the type of
Certificate
s in this certification path (never null)
-
getEncodings
Returns an iteration of the encodings supported by this certification path, with the default encoding first. Attempts to modify the returnedIterator
via itsremove
method result in anUnsupportedOperationException
.- Returns:
- an
Iterator
over the names of the supported encodings (as Strings)
-
equals
Compares this certification path for equality with the specified object. TwoCertPath
s are equal if and only if their types are equal and their certificateList
s (and by implication theCertificate
s in thoseList
s) are equal. ACertPath
is never equal to an object that is not aCertPath
.This algorithm is implemented by this method. If it is overridden, the behavior specified here must be maintained.
-
hashCode
public int hashCode()Returns the hashcode for this certification path. The hash code of a certification path is defined to be the result of the following calculation:
This ensures thathashCode = path.getType().hashCode(); hashCode = 31*hashCode + path.getCertificates().hashCode();
path1.equals(path2)
implies thatpath1.hashCode()==path2.hashCode()
for any two certification paths,path1
andpath2
, as required by the general contract ofObject.hashCode
. -
toString
Returns a string representation of this certification path. This calls thetoString
method on each of theCertificate
s in the path. -
getEncoded
Returns the encoded form of this certification path, using the default encoding.- Returns:
- the encoded bytes
- Throws:
CertificateEncodingException
- if an encoding error occurs
-
getEncoded
Returns the encoded form of this certification path, using the specified encoding.- Parameters:
encoding
- the name of the encoding to use- Returns:
- the encoded bytes
- Throws:
CertificateEncodingException
- if an encoding error occurs or the encoding requested is not supported
-
getCertificates
Returns the list of certificates in this certification path. TheList
returned must be immutable and thread-safe.- Returns:
- an immutable
List
ofCertificate
s (may be empty, but not null)
-
writeReplace
Replaces theCertPath
to be serialized with aCertPathRep
object containing theCertificate
type and encoded bytes of theCertPath
.- Returns:
- a
CertPathRep
containing theCertificate
type and encoded bytes of theCertPath
- Throws:
ObjectStreamException
- if aCertPathRep
object representing this certification path could not be created
-