001    /**
002     *
003     * Copyright 2003-2004 The Apache Software Foundation
004     *
005     *  Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
006     *  you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
007     *  You may obtain a copy of the License at
008     *
009     *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
010     *
011     *  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
012     *  distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
013     *  WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
014     *  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
015     *  limitations under the License.
016     */
017    
018    package javax.mail;
019    
020    import java.io.Serializable;
021    
022    /**
023     * This abstract class models the addresses in a message.
024     * Addresses are Serializable so that they may be serialized along with other search terms.
025     *
026     * @version $Rev: 125583 $ $Date: 2005-01-18 19:44:27 -0800 (Tue, 18 Jan 2005) $
027     */
028    public abstract class Address implements Serializable {
029        /**
030         * Subclasses must provide a suitable implementation of equals().
031         *
032         * @param object the object to compare t
033         * @return true if the subclass determines the other object is equal to this Address
034         */
035        public abstract boolean equals(Object object);
036    
037        /**
038         * Return a String that identifies this address type.
039         * @return the type of this address
040         */
041        public abstract String getType();
042    
043        /**
044         * Subclasses must provide a suitable representation of their address.
045         * @return a representation of an Address as a String
046         */
047        public abstract String toString();
048    }