geronimo-spec-javamail/src/java/javax/mail/Address.java

/**
 *
 * Copyright 2003-2004 The Apache Software Foundation
 *
 *  Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 *  you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 *  You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 *  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 *  distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 *  WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 *  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 *  limitations under the License.
 */

package javax.mail;

import java.io.Serializable;

/**
 * This abstract class models the addresses in a message.
 * Addresses are Serializable so that they may be serialized along with other search terms.
 *
 * @version $Rev$ $Date$
 */
public abstract class Address implements Serializable {
    /**
     * Subclasses must provide a suitable implementation of equals().
     *
     * @param object the object to compare t
     * @return true if the subclass determines the other object is equal to this Address
     */
    public abstract boolean equals(Object object);

    /**
     * Return a String that identifies this address type.
     * @return the type of this address
     */
    public abstract String getType();

    /**
     * Subclasses must provide a suitable representation of their address.
     * @return a representation of an Address as a String
     */
    public abstract String toString();
}