Java(TM) Boutique - Creating Content and Protocol Handlers in Java, Part 2

Tutorials : Creating Content and Protocol Handlers in Java, Part 2 :

Let's Put It All Together

There are also three steps to creating your own protocol handler:

Figure 2. The relationship between the three getContent methods. The URL.getContent, URLConnection.getContent, and ContentHandler.getContent.

Note: Remember that a protocol handler is in connection with a content handler, so, you have to know what content handlers are and how do they work.

As you can see from Figure 2, the starting point of the discussion is the URL class. More precisely, the URL object indicates the resource that is accessed. In the TestProtocolHandler example, the URL is specified like this:

URL url=new URL("xy:X//localhost/image.xy");

The xy:X//localhost/image.xy path is parsed by the URL class only for extracting the protocol name. In this case, the result of parsing indicates the xy protocol, a total unknown protocol. After the URL class finds out the protocol name, it localizes the appropriate protocol handler by looking into the sun.net.www.protocol... packages. Because the xy protocol doesn't have a default protocol handler, there are two solutions for helping the URL class to find the xy protocol handler:

Put the xy protocol handler into the sun.net.www.protocol.xy package (for an automatic install).
Call createURLStreamHandler and setURLStreamHandlerFactory (for a manual install).

The TestProtocolHandler example implements the both solutions.

Strong Network Application Support

Content and protocol handlers are just one aspect of Java's strong network application support. You can use content and protocol handlers to create your own Internet browser—and not just an Internet browser for already known protocols, but an Internet browser supporting your own protocols.

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