JavaTM 2 Platform
Std. Ed. v1.4.1

java.security
Class KeyFactorySpi

java.lang.Object
  |
  +--java.security.KeyFactorySpi

public abstract class KeyFactorySpi
extends Object

This class defines the Service Provider Interface (SPI) for the KeyFactory class. All the abstract methods in this class must be implemented by each cryptographic service provider who wishes to supply the implementation of a key factory for a particular algorithm.

Key factories are used to convert keys (opaque cryptographic keys of type Key) into key specifications (transparent representations of the underlying key material), and vice versa.

Key factories are bi-directional. That is, they allow you to build an opaque key object from a given key specification (key material), or to retrieve the underlying key material of a key object in a suitable format.

Multiple compatible key specifications may exist for the same key. For example, a DSA public key may be specified using DSAPublicKeySpec or X509EncodedKeySpec. A key factory can be used to translate between compatible key specifications.

A provider should document all the key specifications supported by its key factory.

Since:
1.2
See Also:
KeyFactory, Key, PublicKey, PrivateKey, KeySpec, DSAPublicKeySpec, X509EncodedKeySpec

Constructor Summary
KeyFactorySpi()
           
 
Method Summary
protected abstract  PrivateKey engineGeneratePrivate(KeySpec keySpec)
          Generates a private key object from the provided key specification (key material).
protected abstract  PublicKey engineGeneratePublic(KeySpec keySpec)
          Generates a public key object from the provided key specification (key material).
protected abstract  KeySpec engineGetKeySpec(Key key, Class keySpec)
          Returns a specification (key material) of the given key object.
protected abstract  Key engineTranslateKey(Key key)
          Translates a key object, whose provider may be unknown or potentially untrusted, into a corresponding key object of this key factory.
 
Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object
clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait
 

Constructor Detail

KeyFactorySpi

public KeyFactorySpi()
Method Detail

engineGeneratePublic

protected abstract PublicKey engineGeneratePublic(KeySpec keySpec)
                                           throws InvalidKeySpecException
Generates a public key object from the provided key specification (key material).

Parameters:
keySpec - the specification (key material) of the public key.
Returns:
the public key.
Throws:
InvalidKeySpecException - if the given key specification is inappropriate for this key factory to produce a public key.

engineGeneratePrivate

protected abstract PrivateKey engineGeneratePrivate(KeySpec keySpec)
                                             throws InvalidKeySpecException
Generates a private key object from the provided key specification (key material).

Parameters:
keySpec - the specification (key material) of the private key.
Returns:
the private key.
Throws:
InvalidKeySpecException - if the given key specification is inappropriate for this key factory to produce a private key.

engineGetKeySpec

protected abstract KeySpec engineGetKeySpec(Key key,
                                            Class keySpec)
                                     throws InvalidKeySpecException
Returns a specification (key material) of the given key object. keySpec identifies the specification class in which the key material should be returned. It could, for example, be DSAPublicKeySpec.class, to indicate that the key material should be returned in an instance of the DSAPublicKeySpec class.

Parameters:
key - the key.
keySpec - the specification class in which the key material should be returned.
Returns:
the underlying key specification (key material) in an instance of the requested specification class.
Throws:
InvalidKeySpecException - if the requested key specification is inappropriate for the given key, or the given key cannot be dealt with (e.g., the given key has an unrecognized format).

engineTranslateKey

protected abstract Key engineTranslateKey(Key key)
                                   throws InvalidKeyException
Translates a key object, whose provider may be unknown or potentially untrusted, into a corresponding key object of this key factory.

Parameters:
key - the key whose provider is unknown or untrusted.
Returns:
the translated key.
Throws:
InvalidKeyException - if the given key cannot be processed by this key factory.

JavaTM 2 Platform
Std. Ed. v1.4.1

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For further API reference and developer documentation, see Java 2 SDK SE Developer Documentation. That documentation contains more detailed, developer-targeted descriptions, with conceptual overviews, definitions of terms, workarounds, and working code examples.

Copyright 2002 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. Use is subject to license terms.