The CertPathParameters Interface

The CertPathParameters interface is a transparent representation of the set of parameters used with a particular certification path builder or validation algorithm. Its main purpose is to group and provide type safety for all certification path parameter specifications. The CertPathParameters interface extends the Cloneable interface and defines a clone() method that does not throw an exception. All concrete implementations of this interface should implement and override the Object.clone() method, if necessary. This allows applications to clone any CertPathParameters object.

Objects implementing the CertPathParameters interface are passed as arguments to methods of the CertPathValidator and CertPathBuilder classes. Typically, a concrete implementation of the CertPathParameters interface will hold a set of input parameters specific to a particular certification path build or validation algorithm. For example, the PKIXParameters class is an implementation of the CertPathParameters interface that holds a set of input parameters for the PKIX certification path validation algorithm. One such parameter is the set of most-trusted CAs that the caller trusts for anchoring the validation process. This parameter among others is discussed in more detail in the section discussing the PKIXParameters class.