001    /*
002     * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
003     * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
004     * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
005     * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
006     * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
007     * the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
008     * 
009     *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
010     * 
011     * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
012     * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
013     * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
014     * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
015     * limitations under the License.
016     */
017    
018    package org.apache.commons.codec;
019    
020    /**
021     * Defines common encoding methods for byte array encoders.
022     * 
023     * @author Apache Software Foundation
024     * @version $Id: BinaryEncoder.java 651573 2008-04-25 11:11:21Z niallp $
025     */
026    public interface BinaryEncoder extends Encoder {
027        
028        /**
029         * Encodes a byte array and return the encoded data
030         * as a byte array.
031         * 
032         * @param pArray Data to be encoded
033         *
034         * @return A byte array containing the encoded data
035         * 
036         * @throws EncoderException thrown if the Encoder
037         *      encounters a failure condition during the
038         *      encoding process.
039         */
040        byte[] encode(byte[] pArray) throws EncoderException;
041    }  
042