/**
 * <copyright> Copyright (c) 2006 by Know-Center, Graz, Austria </copyright>
 * 
 * This software is the confidential and proprietary information of Know-Center,
 * Graz, Austria. You shall not disclose such Confidential Information and shall
 * use it only in accordance with the terms of the license agreement you entered
 * into with Know-Center.
 * 
 * KNOW-CENTER MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES ABOUT THE SUITABILITY OF
 * THE SOFTWARE, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE
 * IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR
 * NON-INFRINGEMENT. KNOW-CENTER SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES SUFFERED BY
 * LICENSEE AS A RESULT OF USING, MODIFYING OR DISTRIBUTING THIS SOFTWARE OR ITS
 * DERIVATIVES.
 * 
 * $Id: SignatureHolder.java,v 1.3 2006/10/11 07:57:58 wprinz Exp $
 */
package at.knowcenter.wag.egov.egiz.pdf;

import at.knowcenter.wag.egov.egiz.sig.SignatureObject;

/**
 * Data structure that holds the information of one signature block, which is
 * the signed/signable text and the corresponding SignatureObject.
 * 
 * <p>
 * Signators and Verifiactors should implement own classes for this interface
 * that generate the text to be signed from the underlying data. For example a
 * binary signature holder could generate the text to be signed by Base64
 * encoding the binary data. Furthermore this allows to cache the text to be
 * signed.
 * </p>
 * 
 * @author wprinz
 */
public interface SignatureHolder
{

  /**
   * Returns the signed text (verification) or the to-be-signed signable text
   * (signation).
   * 
   * <p>
   * Note that this text must be the one that was actually signed. This text is
   * directly passed to the connector for signation/verification. No
   * normalization or modification will be / must be done to this text between
   * reading out from the signature holder and passing the text to the
   * connector.
   * </p>
   * 
   * @return Returns the signed text or the to-be-signed signable text.
   */
  public String getSignedText();

  /**
   * 
   * @return Returns the SignatureObject containing the issuer, serial number,
   *         etc.
   */
  public SignatureObject getSignatureObject();

}