gecko-dev/xpcom/ds/nsISerializable.idl

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 * The Original Code is Mozilla FastLoad code.
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 * The Initial Developer of the Original Code is 
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 * Contributor(s):
 *   Brendan Eich <brendan@mozilla.org> (original author)
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#include "nsISupports.idl"

interface nsIObjectInputStream;
interface nsIObjectOutputStream;

[scriptable, uuid(91cca981-c26d-44a8-bebe-d9ed4891503a)]
interface nsISerializable : nsISupports
{
    /**
     * Initialize the object implementing nsISerializable, which must have
     * been freshly constructed via CreateInstance.  All data members that
     * can't be set to default values must have been serialized by write,
     * and should be read from aInputStream in the same order by this method.
     */
    void read(in nsIObjectInputStream aInputStream);

    /**
     * Serialize the object implementing nsISerializable to aOutputStream, by
     * writing each data member that must be recovered later to reconstitute
     * a working replica of this object, in a canonical member and byte order,
     * to aOutputStream.
     *
     * NB: a class that implements nsISerializable *must* also implement
     * nsIClassInfo, in particular nsIClassInfo::GetClassID.
     */
    void write(in nsIObjectOutputStream aOutputStream);
};