package org.jscsi.target.scsi;

 import java.nio.ByteBuffer;

 /**

  * This interface specifies methods for serializing an object. The serialized object can be inserted into an existing

  * {@link ByteBuffer} of sufficient size at an arbitrary position.

  * <p>

  * This interface is implemented by the classes representing sense and response data (as well as components thereof) to

  * SCSI requests, which are returned to the iSCSI initiator in the SCSI Response PDU's data segment.

  * <p>

  * Additional care must be taken when implementing objects consisting of several {@link ISerializable} components, not

  * to overwrite the fields of another component. The advantage of this strategy, however, will be higher speed, since

  * unnecessary buffer-to-buffer copying is avoided.

  * 

  * @author Andreas Ergenzinger

  */

 public interface ISerializable {

     /**

      * Inserts a serialized representation of the object into the specified {@link ByteBuffer}. The serialized object

      * will occupy the byte positions from <i>index</i> to <i>index + {@link #size()} - 1</i>.

      * 

      * @param byteBuffer where to insert the serialized object representation

      * @param index the position of the first byte of the serialized object in the {@link ByteBuffer}

      */

     public void serialize (ByteBuffer byteBuffer, int index);

     /**

      * Returns the size in bytes of the object's serialized representation.

      * 

      * @return the size in bytes of the object's serialized representation

      */

     public int size ();

 }