This class defines the Service Provider Interface (SPI)
for the KeyFactory class.
All the abstract methods in this class must be implemented by each
cryptographic service provider who wishes to supply the implementation
of a key factory for a particular algorithm.
Key factories are used to convert keys (opaque
cryptographic keys of type Key) into key specifications
(transparent representations of the underlying key material), and vice
versa.
Key factories are bi-directional. That is, they allow you to build an
opaque key object from a given key specification (key material), or to
retrieve the underlying key material of a key object in a suitable format.
Multiple compatible key specifications may exist for the same key.
For example, a DSA public key may be specified using
DSAPublicKeySpec or
X509EncodedKeySpec. A key factory can be used to translate
between compatible key specifications.
A provider should document all the key specifications supported by its
key factory.
author:
Jan Luehe
version:
1.8, 02/02/00
See Also: KeyFactory
See Also: Key
See Also: PublicKey
See Also: PrivateKey
See Also: java.security.spec.KeySpec
See Also: java.security.spec.DSAPublicKeySpec
See Also: java.security.spec.X509EncodedKeySpec
since:
1.2 | 