JSIP API v1.2
November 2006

javax.sip.header
Interface Header

All Superinterfaces:
java.lang.Cloneable, java.io.Serializable
All Known Subinterfaces:
AcceptEncodingHeader, AcceptHeader, AcceptLanguageHeader, AlertInfoHeader, AllowEventsHeader, AllowHeader, AuthenticationInfoHeader, AuthorizationHeader, CallIdHeader, CallInfoHeader, ContactHeader, ContentDispositionHeader, ContentEncodingHeader, ContentLanguageHeader, ContentLengthHeader, ContentTypeHeader, CSeqHeader, DateHeader, ErrorInfoHeader, EventHeader, ExpiresHeader, ExtensionHeader, FromHeader, InReplyToHeader, MaxForwardsHeader, MimeVersionHeader, MinExpiresHeader, OrganizationHeader, PriorityHeader, ProxyAuthenticateHeader, ProxyAuthorizationHeader, ProxyRequireHeader, RAckHeader, ReasonHeader, RecordRouteHeader, ReferToHeader, ReplyToHeader, RequireHeader, RetryAfterHeader, RouteHeader, RSeqHeader, ServerHeader, SIPETagHeader, SIPIfMatchHeader, SubjectHeader, SubscriptionStateHeader, SupportedHeader, TimeStampHeader, ToHeader, UnsupportedHeader, UserAgentHeader, ViaHeader, WarningHeader, WWWAuthenticateHeader

public interface Header
extends java.lang.Cloneable, java.io.Serializable

This interface is the super interface of all SIP headers supported explicitly by this specification. Extension Headers can be supported by this specification as required by extending the ExtensionHeader assuming other endpoints understand the Header. This specification supports the following headers not defined in RFC3261 documented in the following standards track RFCs:

SIP header fields are similar to HTTP header fields in both syntax and semantics. Some header fields only make sense in requests or responses. These are called request header fields and response header fields, respectively. If a header field appears in a message not matching its category (such as a request header field in a response), it MUST be ignored.

Header Handling:
Any SIP header whose grammar is of the form:

header = "header-name" HCOLON header-value *(COMMA header-value)

allows for combining header fields of the same name into a comma-separated list. In this specification each Header object has a single value or attribute pair. For example a Header whose grammer is of the form:
Allow: Invite, Bye;

would be represented in a SIP message with two AllowHeader objects each containing a single attribute, Invite and Bye respectively. Implementations MUST be able to parse multiple header field rows with the same name in any combination of the single-value-per-line or comma-separated value forms and translate them into the relevent Header objects defined in this specification.

The relative order of header objects within messages is not significant. However, it is RECOMMENDED that required header and headers which are needed for proxy processing (Via, Route, Record-Route, Proxy-Require, Max-Forwards, and Proxy-Authorization, for example) appear towards the top of the message to facilitate rapid parsing.

The relative order of header objects with the same field name is important. Multiple headers with the same name MAY be present in a message if and only if the entire field-value for that header field can be defined as a comma-separated list as defined by RFC 3261. The exceptions to this rule are the WWW-Authenticate, Authorization, Proxy-Authenticate, and Proxy-Authorization header fields. Multiple header objects with these names MAY be present in a message, but since their grammar does not follow the general form listed above, they MUST NOT be combined into a single header field row when sent over the network.

Even though an arbitrary number of parameter pairs may be attached to a header object, any given parameter-name MUST NOT appear more than once.

Author:
BEA Systems, NIST

Method Summary
 java.lang.Object clone()
          Creates and returns a deep copy of the Header.
 boolean equals(java.lang.Object obj)
          Compare this SIP Header for equality with another.
 java.lang.String getName()
          Gets the unique string name of this Header.
 int hashCode()
          Gets a integer hashcode representation of the Header.
 java.lang.String toString()
          Gets a string representation of the Header.
 

Method Detail

getName

java.lang.String getName()
Gets the unique string name of this Header. A name constant is defined in each individual Header identifying each Header.

Returns:
the name of this specific Header

equals

boolean equals(java.lang.Object obj)
Compare this SIP Header for equality with another. This method overrides the equals method in java.lang.Object. This method is over-ridden further for each required header (To, From, CSeq, Call-ID, Max-Forwards, and Via) which object equality is outlined as specified by RFC3261. All optional headers are compared using object equality that is each field in the header is used for comparision. When comparing header fields, field names are always case-insensitive. Unless otherwise stated in the definition of a particular header field, field values, parameter names, and parameter values are case-insensitive. Tokens are always case-insensitive. Unless specified otherwise, values expressed as quoted strings are case-sensitive.

Overrides:
equals in class java.lang.Object
Parameters:
obj - the object to compare this Header with.
Returns:
true if obj is an instance of this class representing the same SIP Header as this, false otherwise.

clone

java.lang.Object clone()
Creates and returns a deep copy of the Header. This methods must ensure a deep copy of the Header, so that when a message is cloned the Header can be modified without effecting the original Header in the message. This provides useful functionality for proxying Requests and Responses, for example: This method overrides the clone method in java.lang.Object.

Returns:
a deep copy of Header

hashCode

int hashCode()
Gets a integer hashcode representation of the Header. This method overrides the hashcode method in java.lang.Object.

Overrides:
hashCode in class java.lang.Object
Returns:
integer representation of Header hashcode
Since:
v1.2

toString

java.lang.String toString()
Gets a string representation of the Header. This method overrides the toString method in java.lang.Object.

Overrides:
toString in class java.lang.Object
Returns:
string representation of Header

JSIP API v1.2
November 2006

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Copyright - 2006 BEA Systems and Sun Microsystems