# COSBase.java

    /*
     * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more
     * contributor license agreements.  See the NOTICE file distributed with
     * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership.
     * The ASF licenses this file to You 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 org.apache.pdfbox.cos;

    import org.apache.pdfbox.pdmodel.common.COSObjectable;

    import java.io.IOException;

    /**
     * The base object that all objects in the PDF document will extend.
     *
     * @author Ben Litchfield
     */
    public abstract class COSBase implements COSObjectable
    {

        private boolean direct;
        private COSObjectKey key;

        /**
         * Constructor.
         */
        public COSBase()
        {
        }

        /**
         * Convert this standard java object to a COS object.
         *
         * @return The cos object that matches this Java object.
         */
        @Override
        public COSBase getCOSObject()
        {
            return this;
        }

        /**
         * visitor pattern double dispatch method.
         *
         * @param visitor The object to notify when visiting this object.
         * @throws IOException If an error occurs while visiting this object.
         */
        public abstract void accept(ICOSVisitor visitor) throws IOException;

        /**
         * If the state is set true, the dictionary will be written direct into the called object.
         * This means, no indirect object will be created.
         *
         * @return the state
         */
        public boolean isDirect()
        {
            return direct;
        }

        /**
         * Set the state true, if the dictionary should be written as a direct object and not indirect.
         *
         * @param direct set it true, for writing direct object
         */
        public void setDirect(boolean direct)
        {
            this.direct = direct;
        }

        /**
         * This will return the COSObjectKey of an indirect object.
         *
         * @return the COSObjectKey
         */
        public COSObjectKey getKey()
        {
            return key;
        }

        /**
         * Set the COSObjectKey of an indirect object.
         *
         * @param key the COSObjectKey of the indirect object
         */
        public void setKey(COSObjectKey key)
        {
            this.key = key;
        }

    }