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 *
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#include "nsIRequest.idl"

interface nsIURI;
interface nsIInterfaceRequestor;
interface nsIInputStream;
interface nsIStreamListener;

/**
 * The nsIChannel interface allows clients to construct "GET" requests for
 * specific protocols, and manage them in a uniform way.  Once a channel is
 * created (via nsIIOService::newChannel), parameters for that request may
 * be set by using the channel attributes, or by QI'ing to a subclass of
 * nsIChannel for protocol-specific parameters.  Then, the URI can be fetched
 * by calling nsIChannel::open or nsIChannel::asyncOpen.
 *
 * After a request has been completed, the channel is still valid for accessing
 * protocol-specific results.  For example, QI'ing to nsIHttpChannel allows
 * response headers to be retrieved for the corresponding http transaction. 
 *
 * @status FROZEN
 */
[scriptable, uuid(c63a055a-a676-4e71-bf3c-6cfa11082018)]
interface nsIChannel : nsIRequest
{
    /**
     * The original URI used to construct the channel. This is used in the case
     * of a redirect or URI "resolution" (e.g. resolving a resource: URI to a
     * file: URI) so that the original pre-redirect URI can still be obtained. 
     *
     * NOTE: this is distinctly different from the http Referer (referring URI),
     * which is typically the page that contained the original URI (accessible
     * from nsIHttpChannel).
     */
    attribute nsIURI originalURI;

    /**
     * The URI corresponding to the channel.  Its value is immutable.
     */
    readonly attribute nsIURI URI;

    /**
     * The owner, corresponding to the entity that is responsible for this
     * channel.  Used by the security manager to grant or deny privileges to
     * mobile code loaded from this channel.
     *
     * NOTE: this is a strong reference to the owner, so if the owner is also
     * holding a strong reference to the channel, care must be taken to 
     * explicitly drop its reference to the channel.
     */
    attribute nsISupports owner;

    /**
     * The notification callbacks for the channel.  This is set by clients, who
     * wish to provide a means to receive progress, status and protocol-specific 
     * notifications.  If this value is NULL, the channel implementation may use
     * the notification callbacks from its load group.
     * 
     * Interfaces commonly requested include: nsIProgressEventSink, nsIPrompt,
     * and nsIAuthPrompt.
     *
     * NOTE: channels generally query this attribute when they are opened and
     * retain references to the resulting interfaces until they are done.  A
     * channel may ignore changes to the notificationCallbacks attribute after
     * it has been opened.  This rule also applies to notificationCallbacks
     * queried from the channel's loadgroup.
     */
    attribute nsIInterfaceRequestor notificationCallbacks;

    /**
     * Transport-level security information (if any) corresponding to the channel.
     */
    readonly attribute nsISupports securityInfo;

    /**
     * The MIME type of the channel's content if available. 
     * 
     * NOTE: the content type can often be wrongly specified (e.g., wrong file
     * extension, wrong MIME type, wrong document type stored on a server, etc.),
     * and the caller most likely wants to verify with the actual data.
     *
     * Setting contentType before the channel has been opened provides a hint
     * to the channel as to what the MIME type is.  The channel may ignore this
     * hint in deciding on the actual MIME type that it will report.
     *
     * Setting contentType after onStartRequest has been fired or after open()
     * is called will override the type determined by the channel.
     *
     * Setting contentType between the time that asyncOpen() is called and the
     * time when onStartRequest is fired has undefined behavior at this time.
     *
     * The value of the contentType attribute is a lowercase string.  A value
     * assigned to this attribute will be parsed and normalized as follows:
     *  1- any parameters (delimited with a ';') will be stripped.
     *  2- if a charset parameter is given, then its value will replace the
     *     the contentCharset attribute of the channel.
     *  3- the stripped contentType will be lowercased.
     * Any implementation of nsIChannel must follow these rules.
     */
    attribute ACString contentType;

    /**
     * The character set of the channel's content if available and if applicable.
     * This attribute only applies to textual data.
     *
     * The value of the contentCharset attribute is a mixedcase string.
     */
    attribute ACString contentCharset;

    /**
     * The length of the data associated with the channel if available.  A value
     * of -1 indicates that the content length is unknown.
     */
    attribute long contentLength;

    /**
     * Synchronously open the channel.
     *
     * @return blocking input stream to the channel's data.
     *
     * NOTE: nsIChannel implementations are not required to implement this
     * method.  Moreover, since this method may block the calling thread, it
     * should not be called on a thread that processes UI events.
     */
    nsIInputStream open();

    /**
     * Asynchronously open this channel.  Data is fed to the specified stream
     * listener as it becomes available.
     *
     * @param aListener the nsIStreamListener implementation
     * @param aContext an opaque parameter forwarded to aListener's methods
     */
    void asyncOpen(in nsIStreamListener aListener, in nsISupports aContext);

    /**************************************************************************
     * Channel specific load flags:
     *
     * Bits 21-31 are reserved for future use by this interface or one of its
     * derivatives (e.g., see nsICachingChannel).
     */

    /**
     * Set (e.g., by the docshell) to indicate whether or not the channel
     * corresponds to a document URI.
     */
    const unsigned long LOAD_DOCUMENT_URI = 1 << 16;

    /** 
     * If the end consumer for this load has been retargeted after discovering 
     * it's content, this flag will be set:
     */
    const unsigned long LOAD_RETARGETED_DOCUMENT_URI = 1 << 17;

    /**
     * This flag is set to indicate that onStopRequest may be followed by
     * another onStartRequest/onStopRequest pair.  This flag is, for example,
     * used by the multipart/replace stream converter.
     */
    const unsigned long LOAD_REPLACE = 1 << 18;

    /**
     * Set (e.g., by the docshell) to indicate whether or not the channel
     * corresponds to an initial document URI load (e.g., link click).
     */
    const unsigned long LOAD_INITIAL_DOCUMENT_URI = 1 << 19;

    /**
     * Set (e.g., by the URILoader) to indicate whether or not the end consumer
     * for this load has been determined.
     */
    const unsigned long LOAD_TARGETED = 1 << 20;
};
