/* ObjectReferenceFactory.java --
   Copyright (C) 2005, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

This file is part of GNU Classpath.

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package org.omg.PortableInterceptor;

import org.omg.CORBA.Object;
import org.omg.CORBA.portable.IDLEntity;
import org.omg.CORBA.portable.ValueBase;

/**
 * Provides the possibility to create the CORBA object reference.
 * The reference is created from repository id (defining the type of the
 * object) and the object id (defining the identity of the object).
 *
 * @since 1.5
 *
 * @author Audrius Meskauskas, Lithuania (AudriusA@Bioinformatics.org)
 */
public interface ObjectReferenceFactory
  extends ValueBase, IDLEntity
{
  /**
   * Create an object with the given repository and object ids. This interface
   * does not specify where and how the returned object must be connected and
   * activated. The derived {@link ObjectReferenceTemplate} interface assumes
   * the object must be connected to the POA that is specific to that
   * template (name can be obtained).
   * 
   * If the object with this objectId already exists in the given context, it 
   * is found and returned; a new object is <i>not</i> created.
   * 
   * @param repositoryId the repository id of the object being created, defines
   * the type of the object.
   * 
   * @param objectId the byte array, defining the identity of the object.
   * 
   * @return The created corba object.
   */
  Object make_object(String repositoryId, byte[] objectId);
}