Copyright 2011-2016 Terracotta, Inc.
Copyright 2011-2016 Oracle America Incorporated
Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
You may obtain a copy of the License at
    http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
limitations under the License.
/**
 * Copyright 2011-2016 Terracotta, Inc.
 * Copyright 2011-2016 Oracle America Incorporated
 *
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */
package javax.cache.annotation;

import java.io.Serializable;

A Serializable, immutable, thread-safe object that is used as a key, automatically generated by a CacheKeyGenerator. 
 The implementation MUST follow the Java contract for Object.hashCode() and Object.equals(Object) to ensure correct behavior. 
 It is recommended that implementations also override Object.toString() and provide a human-readable string representation of the key. 
Author:
Eric Dalquist
See Also:
CacheKeyGenerator
Since:
1.0/**
 * A {@link Serializable}, immutable, thread-safe object that is used as a key,
 * automatically generated by a {@link CacheKeyGenerator}.
 * <p>
 * The implementation MUST follow the Java contract for {@link Object#hashCode()}
 * and {@link Object#equals(Object)} to ensure correct behavior.
 * <p>
 * It is recommended that implementations also override {@link Object#toString()}
 * and provide a human-readable string representation of the key.
 *
 * @author Eric Dalquist
 * @see CacheKeyGenerator
 * @since 1.0
 */
public interface GeneratedCacheKey extends Serializable {

  
The immutable hash code of the cache key.
See Also:
Object.hashCode()
Returns:
The hash code of the object/**
   * The immutable hash code of the cache key.
   *
   * @return The hash code of the object
   * @see Object#hashCode()
   */
  @Override
  int hashCode();

  
Compare this GeneratedCacheKey with another. If the two objects are equal their hashCode() values MUST be equal as well. 
Params:
object – The other object to compare to.
See Also:
Object.equals(Object)
Returns:
true if the objects are equal/**
   * Compare this {@link GeneratedCacheKey} with another. If the two objects
   * are equal their {@link #hashCode()} values MUST be equal as well.
   *
   * @param object The other object to compare to.
   * @return true if the objects are equal
   * @see Object#equals(Object)
   */
  @Override
  boolean equals(Object object);
}