application/x-java-serialized-object 
<classname>

application/x-java-serialized-object java.util.Vector

DataFlavor Methods

Variables

The DataFlavor class includes two public variables that hold "prebuilt" flavors representing different kinds of text objects. These flavors are used in conjunction with the StringSelection class. Although these flavors are variables for all practical purposes, they are used as constants.

public static DataFlavor stringFlavor

The stringFlavor variable is the data flavor for textual data represented as a Java String object. Its MIME type is application/x-javaserializedobject String.

public static DataFlavor plainTextFlavor

The plainTextFlavor variable is the data flavor for standard, Unicode-encoded text. Its MIME type is text/plain; charset=unicode.

Constructors

The DataFlavor class has two constructors. One creates a DataFlavor given a MIME content type; the other creates a DataFlavor given a Java class and builds the MIME type from the class name.

public DataFlavor(String mimeType, String humanPresentableName)

The first constructor creates an instance of DataFlavor for the mimeType flavor of data. The humanPresentableName parameter should be a more user-friendly name. It might be used in a menu to let the user select a flavor from several possibilities. It might also be used to generate an error message when the UnsupportedFlavorException occurs. The plainTextFlavor uses "Plain Text" as its presentable name.

To read data from the clipboard, a program calls the Transferable.getTransferData() method. If the data is represented by a DataFlavor that doesn't correspond to a Java class (for example, plainTextFlavor), getTransferData() returns an InputStream for you to read the data from.

public DataFlavor(Class representationClass, String humanPresentableName)

The other constructor creates an instance of DataFlavor for the specific Java class representationClass. Again, the humanPresentableName provides a more user-friendly name for use in menus, error messages, or other interactions with users. The stringFlavor uses "Unicode String" as its presentable name.

A program calls Transferable.getTransferData() to read data from the clipboard. If the data is represented by a Java class, getTransferData() returns an instance of the representation class itself. It does not return a Class object. For example, if the data flavor is stringFlavor, getTransferData() returns a String.

Presentations

public String getHumanPresentableName()

The getHumanPresentableName() method returns the data flavor's presentable name; for example, stringFlavor.getHumanPresentableName() returns the string "Unicode String".

public void setHumanPresentableName(String humanPresentableName)

The setHumanPresentableName() method changes the data flavor's presentable name to a new humanPresentableName. It is hard to imagine why you would want to change a flavor's name.

public String getMimeType()

The getMimeType() method gets the MIME content type for the DataFlavor as a String.

public Class getRepresentationClass()

The getRepresentationClass() method returns the Java type that is used to represent data of this flavor (i.e., the type that would be returned by the getTransferData()method). It returns the type as a Class object, not an instance of the class itself. Note that all data flavors have a representation class, not just those for which the class is specified explicitly in the constructor. For example, the plainTextFlavor.getRepresentationClass() method returns the class java.io.StringReader.

public boolean isMimeTypeEqual(String mimeType)

The isMimeTypeEqual() method checks for string equality between mimeType and the data flavor's MIME type string. For some MIME types, this comparison may be too simplistic because character sets may not be present on types like text/plain. Therefore, this method would tell you that the MIME type text/plain; charset=unicode is different from text/plain.

public final boolean isMimeTypeEqual(DataFlavor dataFlavor)

The isMimeTypeEqual() method checks whether the MIME type of the dataFlavor parameter equals the current data flavor's MIME type. It calls the previous method, and therefore has the same weaknesses.

Protected methods

protected String normalizeMimeType(String mimeType)

The normalizeMimeType() method is used to convert a MIME type string into a standard form. Its argument is a MIME type, as a String; it returns the new normalized MIME type. You would never call normalizeMimeType() directly, but you might want to override this method if you are creating a subclass of DataFlavor and want to change the default normalization process. For example, one thing you might do with this is add the string charset=US-ASCII to the text/plain MIME type if it appears without a character set.

protected String normalizeMimeTypeParameter(String parameterName, String parameterValue)

The normalizeMimeTypeParameter() method is used to convert any parameters associated with MIME types into a standard form. Its arguments are a parameter name (for example, charset) and the parameter's value (for example, unicode). It returns parameterValue normalized. You would never call normalizeMimeTypeParameter() directly, but you might want to override this method if you are creating a subclass of DataFlavor and want to change the default normalization process. For example, parameter values may be case sensitive. You could write a method that would convert the value Unicode to the more appropriate form unicode.

While it may be more trouble than it's worth, carefully overriding these normalization methods might help you to get more predictable results from methods like isMimeTypeEqual().

Miscellaneous methods

public boolean equals(DataFlavor dataFlavor)

The equals() method defines equality for flavors. Two DataFlavor objects are equal if their MIME type and representation class are equal.