Case Study: OMG/CORBA

© Wolfgang Emmerich, 1998/99

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Outline

■ Who is the OMG

■ Goals of CORBA
■ CORBA Object Model
■ CORBA Interface Definition Language
■ CORBA Architecture
• Presentation Layer Implementation
• Session Layer Implementation

© Wolfgang Emmerich, 1998/99

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 Who is the OMG?

■ Non-profit organisation with HQ in the US,

representatives in United Kingdom,
Germany, Japan, India, and Australia.
■ Founded April 1989.
■ More than 800 members.
■ Dedicated to creating and popularizing
object-oriented industry standards for
application integration, e.g.
• CORBA
• ODMG-93
• UML
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Goal of CORBA

■ Support distributed and heterogeneous

object request in a way transparent to
users and application programmers
■ Facilitate the integration of new
components with legacy components
■ Open standard that can be used free of
charge
■ Based on wide industry consensus

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 Object Management Architecture

Application Domain CORBA

Objects Interfaces facilities

Object Request Broker

CORBAservices

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CORBA Object Model

■ Objects
■ Types
■ Modules
■ Attributes
■ Operations
■ Requests
■ Exceptions
■ Subtypes

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 OMG Interface Definition Language

■ Language for expressing all concepts of

the CORBA object model
■ OMG/IDL is
• programming-language independent
• orientated towards C++
• not computationally complete
■ Different programming language bindings
are available
■ Explanation of Model and Language by
Example
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Running Example
Organization
#name:string

Club uses
-noOfMembers:int 1 1..* Trainer
-location:Address -name:string
works for
+transfer(p:Player) +train()
1 1..*
has s
o a che
c 1..*
* Player
Team
plays in -name:string
-name:string
1 11..16 -Number:int
+bookGoalies()
+book()
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 CORBA Object Model: Objects

■ Each object has one identifier that is

unique within an ORB
■ Multiple references to objects
■ References support location transparency
■ Object references are persistent

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CORBA Object Model: Types

Object type
interface Organization {
readonly attribute string name;
};
Constructed type
struct Address {
string street;
string postcode;
Atomic types string city;
};

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 CORBA Object Model: Attributes

Clients cannot
change value Attribute type
Attribute name
interface Team {
changeable readonly attribute string name;
attribute sequence<Trainer> coached_by;
attribute Club belongs_to;
attribute sequence<Player> players;
...
};
Constructed attribute type

© Wolfgang Emmerich, 1998/99

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CORBA Object Model: Operations

Parameter kind

interface Team {
Parameter list
Return type ...
void bookGoalies(in Date d);
Oneway oneway void print();
Synchronization
};
Parameter type
Operation name Parameter name
used in requests
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 CORBA Object Model: Requests

■ Requests are defined by client objects

■ Request consist of
• Reference of server object
• Name of requested operation
• Actual request parameters
• Context information
■ Request is executed synchronously
■ Requests can be defined
• statically
• dynamically
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CORBA Object Model: Exceptions

■ Generic Exceptions (e.g. network down,

invalid object reference, out of memory)
■ Type-specific Exceptions

Exception name Exception data

exception PlayerBooked{sequence<Date> free;};

interface Team {
...
void bookGoalies(in Date d) raises PlayerBooked;
};

Operations declare
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 CORBA Object Model: Subtypes

Implicit supertype:
Object
Inherited by Club
interface Organization {
readonly attribute string name;
}; Supertype
interface Club : Organization {
exception NotInClub{};
readonly attribute short noOfMembers;
readonly attribute Address location;
attribute sequence<Team> teams;
attribute sequence<Trainer> trainers;
void transfer(in Player p) raises NotInClub;
};
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Components involved at run-time

Client Object Implementation

Implementation Object
Dynamic Client ORB
Skeletons Adapter
Invocation Stubs Interface

ORB Core

One standardised interface

One interface per object operation
One interface per object adapter
ORB-dependent interface
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 Generation of Stubs/Skeletons

Team.idl
Client.cc Server.cc

IDL-Compiler

Teamcl.hh Teamsv.hh
Teamcl.cc Teamsv.cc

C++ Compiler, Linker C++ Compiler, Linker

included in
generates
Client Server
reads
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Portable Object Adapter (POA)

■ Facilitate object implementation

portability between different ORBs
■ Support light-weight transient objects
■ Support persistent object identities (e.g.
in ODBMSs)
■ Allow servants to implement multiple
objects
■ Support transparent object activation
■ Extensible mechanism for activation
policies
■ Multiple POAs in one server 18
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 Abstract POA Model

Server

ORB POA
?

Client
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