# Class ContentHandler

java.lang.Object
java.net.ContentHandler

public abstract class ContentHandler extends Object
The abstract class `ContentHandler` is the superclass of all classes that read an `Object` from a `URLConnection`.

An application does not generally call the `getContent` method in this class directly. Instead, an application calls the `getContent` method in class `URL` or in `URLConnection`. The application's content handler factory (an instance of a class that implements the interface `ContentHandlerFactory` set up by a call to `setContentHandlerFactory`) is called with a `String` giving the MIME type of the object being received on the socket. The factory returns an instance of a subclass of `ContentHandler`, and its `getContent` method is called to create the object.

If no content handler could be found, URLConnection will look for a content handler in a user-definable set of places. Users can define a vertical-bar delimited set of class prefixes to search through by defining the `java.content.handler.pkgs` system property. The class name must be of the form:

> {package-prefix}.{major}.{minor}

> where {major}.{minor} is formed by taking the content-type string, replacing all slash characters with a `period` ('.'), and all other non-alphanumeric characters with the underscore character '`_`'. The alphanumeric characters are specifically the 26 uppercase ASCII letters '`A`' through '`Z`', the 26 lowercase ASCII letters '`a`' through '`z`', and the 10 ASCII digits '`0`' through '`9`'.

> e.g. YoyoDyne.experimental.text.plain

If no user-defined content handler is found, then the system tries to load a specific content-type handler from one of the built-in handlers, if one exists.

Since:
  1.0
See Also:
  - `getContent(java.net.URLConnection)`
  - `ContentHandlerFactory`
  - `URL.getContent()`
  - `URLConnection`
  - `URLConnection.getContent()`
  - `URLConnection.setContentHandlerFactory(java.net.ContentHandlerFactory)`

## Constructor Summary

Constructors
Constructor
Description
`ContentHandler()`
Constructor for subclasses to call.

## Method Summary

Modifier and Type
Method
Description
`abstract Object`
`getContent(URLConnection urlc)`
Given a URL connect stream positioned at the beginning of the representation of an object, this method reads that stream and creates an object from it.
`Object`
`getContent(URLConnection urlc, Class[] classes)`
Given a URL connect stream positioned at the beginning of the representation of an object, this method reads that stream and creates an object that matches one of the types specified.

### Methods declared in class Object

`clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait`

## Constructor Details

### ContentHandler

public ContentHandler()
Constructor for subclasses to call.

## Method Details

### getContent

public abstract Object getContent(URLConnection urlc) throws IOException
Given a URL connect stream positioned at the beginning of the representation of an object, this method reads that stream and creates an object from it.

Parameters:
  `urlc` - a URL connection.
Returns:
  the object read by the `ContentHandler`.
Throws:
  `IOException` - if an I/O error occurs while reading the object.

### getContent

public Object getContent(URLConnection urlc, Class[] classes) throws IOException
Given a URL connect stream positioned at the beginning of the representation of an object, this method reads that stream and creates an object that matches one of the types specified. The default implementation of this method should call `getContent(URLConnection)` and screen the return type for a match of the suggested types.

Parameters:
  `urlc` - a URL connection.
  `classes` - an array of types requested
Returns:
  the object read by the `ContentHandler` that is the first match of the suggested types or `null` if none of the requested are supported.
Throws:
  `IOException` - if an I/O error occurs while reading the object.
Since:
  1.3