This is an interface of abstract methods for managing a variety of identity certificates. An identity certificate is a guarantee by a principal that a public key is that of another principal. (A principal represents an entity such as an individual user, a group, or a corporation.)
In particular, this interface is intended to be a common
 abstraction for constructs that have different formats but
 important common uses.  For example, different types of
 certificates, such as X.509 certificates and PGP certificates,
 share general certificate functionality (the need to encode and
 decode certificates) and some types of information, such as a
 public key, the principal whose key it is, and the guarantor
 guaranteeing that the public key is that of the specified
 principal. So an implementation of X.509 certificates and an
 implementation of PGP certificates can both utilize the Certificate
 interface, even though their formats and additional types and
 amounts of information stored are different.
 
Important: This interface is useful for cataloging and
 grouping objects sharing certain common uses. It does not have any
 semantics of its own. In particular, a Certificate object does not
 make any statement as to the validity of the binding. It is
 the duty of the application implementing this interface to verify
 the certificate and satisfy itself of its validity.
- Since:
- 1.1
- See Also:
- 
Method SummaryModifier and TypeMethodDescriptionvoiddecode(InputStream stream) Deprecated, for removal: This API element is subject to removal in a future version.Decodes a certificate from an input stream.voidencode(OutputStream stream) Deprecated, for removal: This API element is subject to removal in a future version.Encodes the certificate to an output stream in a format that can be decoded by thedecodemethod.Deprecated, for removal: This API element is subject to removal in a future version.Returns the name of the coding format.Deprecated, for removal: This API element is subject to removal in a future version.Returns the guarantor of the certificate, that is, the principal guaranteeing that the public key associated with this certificate is that of the principal associated with this certificate.Deprecated, for removal: This API element is subject to removal in a future version.Returns the principal of the principal-key pair being guaranteed by the guarantor.Deprecated, for removal: This API element is subject to removal in a future version.Returns the key of the principal-key pair being guaranteed by the guarantor.toString(boolean detailed) Deprecated, for removal: This API element is subject to removal in a future version.Returns a string that represents the contents of the certificate.
- 
Method Details- 
getGuarantorPrincipal getGuarantor()Deprecated, for removal: This API element is subject to removal in a future version.Returns the guarantor of the certificate, that is, the principal guaranteeing that the public key associated with this certificate is that of the principal associated with this certificate. For X.509 certificates, the guarantor will typically be a Certificate Authority (such as the United States Postal Service or Verisign, Inc.).- Returns:
- the guarantor which guaranteed the principal-key binding.
 
- 
getPrincipalPrincipal getPrincipal()Deprecated, for removal: This API element is subject to removal in a future version.Returns the principal of the principal-key pair being guaranteed by the guarantor.- Returns:
- the principal to which this certificate is bound.
 
- 
getPublicKeyPublicKey getPublicKey()Deprecated, for removal: This API element is subject to removal in a future version.Returns the key of the principal-key pair being guaranteed by the guarantor.- Returns:
- the public key that this certificate certifies belongs to a particular principal.
 
- 
encodeDeprecated, for removal: This API element is subject to removal in a future version.Encodes the certificate to an output stream in a format that can be decoded by thedecodemethod.- Parameters:
- stream- the output stream to which to encode the certificate.
- Throws:
- KeyException- if the certificate is not properly initialized, or data is missing, etc.
- IOException- if a stream exception occurs while trying to output the encoded certificate to the output stream.
- See Also:
 
- 
decodeDeprecated, for removal: This API element is subject to removal in a future version.Decodes a certificate from an input stream. The format should be that returned bygetFormatand produced byencode.- Parameters:
- stream- the input stream from which to fetch the data being decoded.
- Throws:
- KeyException- if the certificate is not properly initialized, or data is missing, etc.
- IOException- if an exception occurs while trying to input the encoded certificate from the input stream.
- See Also:
 
- 
getFormatString getFormat()Deprecated, for removal: This API element is subject to removal in a future version.Returns the name of the coding format. This is used as a hint to find an appropriate parser. It could be "X.509", "PGP", etc. This is the format produced and understood by theencodeanddecodemethods.- Returns:
- the name of the coding format.
 
- 
toStringDeprecated, for removal: This API element is subject to removal in a future version.Returns a string that represents the contents of the certificate.- Parameters:
- detailed- whether or not to give detailed information about the certificate
- Returns:
- a string representing the contents of the certificate
 
 
- 
java.security.cert.Certificateand related classes.