Certificate (Java Platform SE 7 b138)

java.lang.Object
- javax.security.cert.Certificate

Direct Known Subclasses:

X509Certificate
```
public abstract class Certificate
extends Object
```
Abstract class for managing a variety of identity certificates. An identity certificate is a guarantee by a principal that a public key is that of another principal. (A principal represents an entity such as an individual user, a group, or a corporation.)
This class is an abstraction for certificates that have different formats but important common uses. For example, different types of certificates, such as X.509 and PGP, share general certificate functionality (like encoding and verifying) and some types of information (like a public key).
X.509, PGP, and SDSI certificates can all be implemented by subclassing the Certificate class, even though they contain different sets of information, and they store and retrieve the information in different ways.
Note: The classes in the package javax.security.cert exist for compatibility with earlier versions of the Java Secure Sockets Extension (JSSE). New applications should instead use the standard Java SE certificate classes located in java.security.cert.

Since:

1.4

See Also:
X509Certificate

Constructor Summary

Constructors
Constructor and Description

Certificate()

Constructors
Constructor and Description
`Certificate()`

Method Summary

Methods
Modifier and Type	Method and Description
`boolean`	`equals(Object other)` Compares this certificate for equality with the specified object.
`abstract byte[]`	`getEncoded()` Returns the encoded form of this certificate.
`abstract PublicKey`	`getPublicKey()` Gets the public key from this certificate.
`int`	`hashCode()` Returns a hashcode value for this certificate from its encoded form.
`abstract String`	`toString()` Returns a string representation of this certificate.
`abstract void`	`verify(PublicKey key)` Verifies that this certificate was signed using the private key that corresponds to the specified public key.
`abstract void`	`verify(PublicKey key, String sigProvider)` Verifies that this certificate was signed using the private key that corresponds to the specified public key.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object
clone, finalize, getClass, notify, notifyAll, wait, wait, wait

- Constructor Detail
  - Certificate
```
public Certificate()
```
- Method Detail
  - equals
```
public boolean equals(Object other)
```
    Compares this certificate for equality with the specified object. If the other object is an instanceof Certificate, then its encoded form is retrieved and compared with the encoded form of this certificate.
    
    Overrides:
    
    equals in class Object
    
    Parameters:
    other - the object to test for equality with this certificate.
    
    Returns:
    true if the encoded forms of the two certificates match, false otherwise.
    See Also:
    Object.hashCode(), HashMap
  - hashCode
```
public int hashCode()
```
    Returns a hashcode value for this certificate from its encoded form.
    
    Overrides:
    
    hashCode in class Object
    
    Returns:
    the hashcode value.
    See Also:
    Object.equals(java.lang.Object), System.identityHashCode(java.lang.Object)
  - getEncoded
```
public abstract byte[] getEncoded()
                           throws CertificateEncodingException
```
    Returns the encoded form of this certificate. It is assumed that each certificate type would have only a single form of encoding; for example, X.509 certificates would be encoded as ASN.1 DER.
    
    Returns:
    encoded form of this certificate
    
    Throws:
    
    CertificateEncodingException - on internal certificate encoding failure
  - verify
```
public abstract void verify(PublicKey key)
                     throws CertificateException,
                            NoSuchAlgorithmException,
                            InvalidKeyException,
                            NoSuchProviderException,
                            SignatureException
```
    Verifies that this certificate was signed using the private key that corresponds to the specified public key.
    
    Parameters:
    key - the PublicKey used to carry out the verification.
    
    Throws:
    
    NoSuchAlgorithmException - on unsupported signature algorithms.
    
    InvalidKeyException - on incorrect key.
    
    NoSuchProviderException - if there's no default provider.
    
    SignatureException - on signature errors.
    
    CertificateException - on encoding errors.
  - verify
```
public abstract void verify(PublicKey key,
          String sigProvider)
                     throws CertificateException,
                            NoSuchAlgorithmException,
                            InvalidKeyException,
                            NoSuchProviderException,
                            SignatureException
```
    Verifies that this certificate was signed using the private key that corresponds to the specified public key. This method uses the signature verification engine supplied by the specified provider.
    
    Parameters:
    key - the PublicKey used to carry out the verification.
    sigProvider - the name of the signature provider.
    
    Throws:
    
    NoSuchAlgorithmException - on unsupported signature algorithms.
    
    InvalidKeyException - on incorrect key.
    
    NoSuchProviderException - on incorrect provider.
    
    SignatureException - on signature errors.
    
    CertificateException - on encoding errors.
  - toString
```
public abstract String toString()
```
    Returns a string representation of this certificate.
    
    Overrides:
    
    toString in class Object
    
    Returns:
    a string representation of this certificate.
  - getPublicKey
```
public abstract PublicKey getPublicKey()
```
    Gets the public key from this certificate.
    
    Returns:
    the public key.

Submit a bug or feature
For further API reference and developer documentation, see Java SE Documentation. That documentation contains more detailed, developer-targeted descriptions, with conceptual overviews, definitions of terms, workarounds, and working code examples.
Copyright © 1993, 2011, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
DRAFT ea-b138

Class Certificate

Constructor Summary

Method Summary

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

Constructor Detail

Certificate

Method Detail

equals

hashCode

getEncoded

verify

verify

toString

getPublicKey