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## java.net
Class ContentHandler

    java.lang.Object
      java.net.ContentHandler

public abstract class ContentHandler
extends Object

The abstract class `ContentHandler` is the superclass of all classes that read an `Object` from a `URLConnection`.

An application does not generally call the `getContent` method in this class directly. Instead, an application calls the `getContent` method in class `URL` or in `URLConnection`. The application's content handler factory (an instance of a class that implements the interface `ContentHandlerFactory` set up by a call to `setContentHandler`) is called with a `String` giving the MIME type of the object being received on the socket. The factory returns an instance of a subclass of `ContentHandler`, and its `getContent` method is called to create the object.

If no content handler could be found, URLConnection will look for a content handler in a user-defineable set of places. By default it looks in sun.net.www.content, but users can define a vertical-bar delimited set of class prefixes to search through in addition by defining the java.content.handler.pkgs property. The class name must be of the form:

         {package-prefix}.{major}.{minor}
     e.g.
         YoyoDyne.experimental.text.plain

If the loading of the content handler class would be performed by a classloader that is outside of the the delegation chain of the caller, the JVM will need the RuntimePermission "getClassLoader".

Since:
  JDK1.0
See Also:
  `getContent(java.net.URLConnection)`, `ContentHandlerFactory`, `URL.getContent()`, `URLConnection`, `URLConnection.getContent()`, `URLConnection.setContentHandlerFactory(java.net.ContentHandlerFactory)`

Constructor Summary
`ContentHandler()`

Method Summary
`abstract Object` | `getContent(URLConnection urlc)` Given a URL connect stream positioned at the beginning of the representation of an object, this method reads that stream and creates an object from it.
`Object` | `getContent(URLConnection urlc, Class[] classes)` Given a URL connect stream positioned at the beginning of the representation of an object, this method reads that stream and creates an object that matches one of the types specified.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object
`clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait`

Constructor Detail

### ContentHandler

    public ContentHandler()

Method Detail

### getContent

    public abstract Object getContent(URLConnection urlc)
                               throws IOException

  Given a URL connect stream positioned at the beginning of the representation of an object, this method reads that stream and creates an object from it.

  Parameters:
    `urlc` - a URL connection.
  Returns:
    the object read by the `ContentHandler`.
  Throws:
    `IOException` - if an I/O error occurs while reading the object.

### getContent

    public Object getContent(URLConnection urlc,
                             Class[] classes)
                      throws IOException

  Given a URL connect stream positioned at the beginning of the representation of an object, this method reads that stream and creates an object that matches one of the types specified. The default implementation of this method should call getContent() and screen the return type for a match of the suggested types.

  Parameters:
    `urlc` - a URL connection.
    `classes` - an array of types requested
  Returns:
    the object read by the `ContentHandler` that is the first match of the suggested types. null if none of the requested are supported.
  Throws:
    `IOException` - if an I/O error occurs while reading the object.

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For further API reference and developer documentation, see Java 2 SDK SE Developer Documentation. That documentation contains more detailed, developer-targeted descriptions, with conceptual overviews, definitions of terms, workarounds, and working code examples.

Copyright 2003 Sun Microsystems, Inc. All rights reserved. Use is subject to license terms. Also see the documentation redistribution policy.