/* InitialContextFactory.java --
   Copyright (C) 2000, 2004  Free Software Foundation, Inc.

This file is part of GNU Classpath.

GNU Classpath is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
any later version.

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MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
General Public License for more details.

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Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA
02110-1301 USA.

Linking this library statically or dynamically with other modules is
making a combined work based on this library.  Thus, the terms and
conditions of the GNU General Public License cover the whole
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As a special exception, the copyright holders of this library give you
permission to link this library with independent modules to produce an
executable, regardless of the license terms of these independent
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package javax.naming.spi;

import java.util.Hashtable;

import javax.naming.Context;
import javax.naming.NamingException;

/**
 * <p>
 * Defines a factory that creates the initial context for the beginning of the
 * name resolution. JNDI allows to specify different implementations of the
 * initial context at runtime.
 * </p>
 * <p>
 * The class, implementing this interface, must be public and have a public
 * parameterless constructor
 * </p>
 */
public interface InitialContextFactory
{
  /**
   * Create a new initial context
   * 
   * @param environment the properties, used when creating the context. The
   *          implementing class will not modify the table nor keep the
   *          reference to it. After the method returns, the caller can safely
   *          reuse the table for other purposes.
   * @return the new initial context
   * @throws NamingException if the naming exception has occured
   */
  Context getInitialContext(Hashtable environment) throws NamingException;
}