IContact.java

import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.RandomAccessFile;

public interface IContact {
	
	/**
	 * an object extending this method needs to add itself to the file using the FixedLengthStringIO class
	 * 
	 */
	void writeObject(RandomAccessFile randomAccessFile) throws IOException;
	
	/**
	 * an object extending this method needs to read itself from the file using the FixedLengthStringIO class.
	 * 
	 */
	void readObject(long position, RandomAccessFile raf) throws IOException;
	
	/**
	 * an object extending this method needs to export itself to a file using a format.
	 * 
	 */
	void export(String format, File file) throws IOException;
	
	/**
	 * an object extending this method needs to load itself from the file using a format.
	 * 
	 */
	void loadFile(String format, File file)throws IOException, ClassNotFoundException;
	
	/**
	 * an object extending this method needs to 'stringify' all of the data it wants to show on a frame
	 * and return a String array of the String data about itself
	 * 
	 */
	String[] getUiData();
	
	/**
	 * an object extending this method needs to return the object size on file
	 * objectSize will always equal = numOfFields*fieldSize*numOfBytes - numOfFields is handled by each child class
	 * 
	 */
	int getObjectSize();

}