This package contains all classes for objects and attributes as known from PKCS#11. For each object defined by PKCS#11 (v2.10) there is a corresponding class in this package. Additionally, there are classes for handling the attributes of objects. As know from PKCS#11, each object possesses certain attributes. For each attribute in an object there is a get< attributename>() method to get the attribute. Unfortunately, not all PKCS#11 modules stick exactly to the standard concerning the attributes. Objects from some modules simply lack some attributes that they should have. Therefore I decided to encapsulate the attributes in a own class to ensure interoperability as far as possible. After an application read an object from the token, it can get the attributes and ask the attributes if they are really present in this object and if their values are sensitive. Besides the different objects and attributes, there is the KeyPair class. It is the only class that has no counterpart in PKCS#11. I introduced it for convenience reasons maily. It is nicer to get a KeyPair than an array with two keys as a result.
The library uses objects from this class for two purposes. First, to represent objects that are present on the token or in the current session. And second, as templates for object serch and object manipulation operations.
Notice that objects of these classes are only snapshots of the objects on the token at the time these Java objects are created. This means, that the attributes values are loaded from the token in the constructor of these classes. And if the application sets attributes to new values it must write these values back to the token for the changes to take effect on the token. For this purpose, use the setAttributeValues(Object,Object) method of a Session object. An application may derive new classes from these object classes to create classes for vendor-defined object types.