Java™ Platform
Standard Ed. 6

javax.tools
Interface FileObject

All Known Subinterfaces:
JavaFileObject
All Known Implementing Classes:
ForwardingFileObject, ForwardingJavaFileObject, SimpleJavaFileObject

public interface FileObject

File abstraction for tools. In this context, file means an abstraction of regular files and other sources of data. For example, a file object can be used to represent regular files, memory cache, or data in databases.

All methods in this interface might throw a SecurityException if a security exception occurs.

Unless explicitly allowed, all methods in this interface might throw a NullPointerException if given a null argument.

Since:
1.6

Method Summary
 boolean delete()
          Deletes this file object.
 CharSequence getCharContent(boolean ignoreEncodingErrors)
          Gets the character content of this file object, if available.
 long getLastModified()
          Gets the time this file object was last modified.
 String getName()
          Gets a user-friendly name for this file object.
 InputStream openInputStream()
          Gets an InputStream for this file object.
 OutputStream openOutputStream()
          Gets an OutputStream for this file object.
 Reader openReader(boolean ignoreEncodingErrors)
          Gets a reader for this object.
 Writer openWriter()
          Gets a Writer for this file object.
 URI toUri()
          Returns a URI identifying this file object.
 

Method Detail

toUri

URI toUri()
Returns a URI identifying this file object.

Returns:
a URI

getName

String getName()
Gets a user-friendly name for this file object. The exact value returned is not specified but implementations should take care to preserve names as given by the user. For example, if the user writes the filename "BobsApp\Test.java" on the command line, this method should return "BobsApp\Test.java" whereas the toUri method might return file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/UncleBob/BobsApp/Test.java.

Returns:
a user-friendly name

openInputStream

InputStream openInputStream()
                            throws IOException
Gets an InputStream for this file object.

Returns:
an InputStream
Throws:
IllegalStateException - if this file object was opened for writing and does not support reading
UnsupportedOperationException - if this kind of file object does not support byte access
IOException - if an I/O error occurred

openOutputStream

OutputStream openOutputStream()
                              throws IOException
Gets an OutputStream for this file object.

Returns:
an OutputStream
Throws:
IllegalStateException - if this file object was opened for reading and does not support writing
UnsupportedOperationException - if this kind of file object does not support byte access
IOException - if an I/O error occurred

openReader

Reader openReader(boolean ignoreEncodingErrors)
                  throws IOException
Gets a reader for this object. The returned reader will replace bytes that cannot be decoded with the default translation character. In addition, the reader may report a diagnostic unless ignoreEncodingErrors is true.

Parameters:
ignoreEncodingErrors - ignore encoding errors if true
Returns:
a Reader
Throws:
IllegalStateException - if this file object was opened for writing and does not support reading
UnsupportedOperationException - if this kind of file object does not support character access
IOException - if an I/O error occurred

getCharContent

CharSequence getCharContent(boolean ignoreEncodingErrors)
                            throws IOException
Gets the character content of this file object, if available. Any byte that cannot be decoded will be replaced by the default translation character. In addition, a diagnostic may be reported unless ignoreEncodingErrors is true.

Parameters:
ignoreEncodingErrors - ignore encoding errors if true
Returns:
a CharSequence if available; null otherwise
Throws:
IllegalStateException - if this file object was opened for writing and does not support reading
UnsupportedOperationException - if this kind of file object does not support character access
IOException - if an I/O error occurred

openWriter

Writer openWriter()
                  throws IOException
Gets a Writer for this file object.

Returns:
a Writer
Throws:
IllegalStateException - if this file object was opened for reading and does not support writing
UnsupportedOperationException - if this kind of file object does not support character access
IOException - if an I/O error occurred

getLastModified

long getLastModified()
Gets the time this file object was last modified. The time is measured in milliseconds since the epoch (00:00:00 GMT, January 1, 1970).

Returns:
the time this file object was last modified; or 0 if the file object does not exist, if an I/O error occurred, or if the operation is not supported

delete

boolean delete()
Deletes this file object. In case of errors, returns false.

Returns:
true if and only if this file object is successfully deleted; false otherwise

Java™ Platform
Standard Ed. 6

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

Copyright 2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. Use is subject to license terms. Also see the documentation redistribution policy.