com.google.gwt.safecss.shared

## Interface SafeStyles

All Superinterfaces:
  java.io.Serializable

All Known Implementing Classes:
  SafeStylesString

    public interface SafeStyles
    extends java.io.Serializable

An object that implements this interface encapsulates zero or more CSS properties that are guaranteed to be safe to use (with respect to potential Cross-Site-Scripting vulnerabilities) in a CSS (Cascading Style Sheet) attribute context. A CSS attribute context can be inside of a CSS rule in a `style` element, or inside the `style` attribute of a DOM element.

Note on usage: `SafeStyles` should be used to ensure user input is not executed in the browser. `SafeStyles` should not be used to sanitize input before sending it to the server: The server cannot rely on the type contract of `SafeStyles` values received from clients, because a malicious client could provide maliciously crafted serialized forms of implementations of this type that violate the type contract.

All implementing classes must maintain the class invariant (by design and implementation and/or convention of use), that invoking `asString()` on any instance will return a string that is safe to assign to a CSS attribute in a browser, in the sense that doing so must not cause execution of script in the browser. Generally, `SafeStyles` should be of the form `cssPropertyName:value;`, where neither the name nor the value contain malicious scripts.

`SafeStyles` may never contain literal angle brackets. Otherwise, it could be unsafe to place a `SafeStyles` into a <style> tag (where it can't be HTML escaped). For example, if the `SafeStyles` containing "`font: 'foo <style><script>evil</script>`'" is used in a style sheet in a <style> tag, this could then break out of the style context into HTML.

`SafeStyles` may contain literal single or double quotes, and as such the entire style string must be escaped when used in a style attribute (if this were not the case, the string could contain a matching quote that would escape from the style attribute).

Furthermore, values of this type must be composable, i.e. for any two values `A` and `B` of this type, `A.asString() + B.asString()` must itself be a value that satisfies the `SafeStyles` type constraint. This requirement implies that for any value `A` of this type, `A.asString()` must not end in a "CSS value" or "CSS name" context. For example, a value of `background:url("` or `font-` would not satisfy the `SafeStyles` contract. This is because concatenating such strings with a second value that itself does not contain unsafe CSS can result in an overall string that does. For example, if `javascript:evil())"` is appended to `background:url("`, the resulting string may result in the execution of a malicious script.

The following example values comply with this type's contract:

- `width: 1em;`
- `height:1em;`
- `width: 1em;height: 1em;`
- `background:url('http://url');`

In addition, the empty string is safe for use in a CSS attribute.

The following example values do not comply with this type's contract:

- `background: red` (missing a trailing semi-colon)
- `background:` (missing a value and a trailing semi-colon)
- `1em` (missing an attribute name, which provides context for the value)

All implementations must implement equals() and hashCode() to behave consistently with the result of asString().equals() and asString.hashCode().

Implementations must not return `null` from `asString()`.

### Method Summary

All Methods Instance Methods Abstract Methods
`java.lang.String` `asString()` Returns this object's contained CSS as a string.
`boolean` `equals(java.lang.Object anObject)` Compares this string to the specified object.
`int` `hashCode()` Returns a hash code for this string.

### Method Detail

#### asString

    java.lang.String asString()

Returns this object's contained CSS as a string.

Based on this class' contract, the returned value will be non-null and a string that is safe to use in an CSS attribute context.

Returns:
  the contents as a String

#### equals

    boolean equals(java.lang.Object anObject)

Compares this string to the specified object. Must be equal to asString().equals().

Overrides:
  `equals` in class `java.lang.Object`
Parameters:
  `anObject` - the object to compare to

#### hashCode

    int hashCode()

Returns a hash code for this string. Must be equal to asString().hashCode().

Overrides:
  `hashCode` in class `java.lang.Object`