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 * Copyright (c) 1995, 2013, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
 * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
 *
 * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
 * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as
 * published by the Free Software Foundation.  Oracle designates this
 * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided
 * by Oracle in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code.
 *
 * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
 * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
 * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that
 * accompanied this code).
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version
 * 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
 * Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
 *
 * Please contact Oracle, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065 USA
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 */

package java.net;

/**
 * This interface defines a factory for {@code URL} stream
 * protocol handlers.
  *
 * <p> A URL stream handler factory is used as specified in the
 * {@linkplain java.net.URL#URL(String,String,int,String) URL constructor}.
 *
 * @author  Arthur van Hoff
 * @see     java.net.URL
 * @see     java.net.URLStreamHandler
 * @since   1.0
 */
public interface URLStreamHandlerFactory {
    /**
     * Creates a new {@code URLStreamHandler} instance with the specified
     * protocol.
     *
     * @param   protocol   the protocol ("{@code ftp}",
     *                     "{@code http}", "{@code nntp}", etc.).
     * @return  a {@code URLStreamHandler} for the specific protocol, or {@code
     *          null} if this factory cannot create a handler for the specific
     *          protocol
     * @see     java.net.URLStreamHandler
     */
    URLStreamHandler createURLStreamHandler(String protocol);
}
