1 The Orber Application
1.1 Content Overview
The Orber documentation is divided into three sections:
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PART ONE - The User's Guide
Description of the Orber Application including IDL-to-Erlang language mapping, services and a small tutorial demonstrating the development of a simple service. -
PART TWO - Release Notes
A concise history of Orber. -
PART THREE - The Reference Manual
A quick reference guide, including a brief description, to all the functions available in Orber.
1.2 Brief Description of the User's Guide
The User's Guide contains the following parts:
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ORB kernel and IIOP support
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Interface Repository
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IDL to Erlang mapping
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CosNaming Service
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Resolving initial reference from Java or C++
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Tutorial - creating a simple service
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CORBA Exceptions
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Interceptors
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OrberWeb
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Debugging
ORB Kernel and IIOP Support
The ORB kernel which has IIOP support will allow the creation of persistent server objects in Erlang. These objects can also be accessed via Erlang and Java environments. For the moment a Java enabled ORB is needed to generate Java from IDL to use Java server objects (this has been tested using OrbixWeb).
Interface Repository
The IFR is an interface repository used for some type-checking when coding/decoding IIOP. The IFR is capable of storing all interfaces and declarations of OMG IDL.
IDL to Erlang Mapping
The OMG IDL mapping for Erlang, which is necessary to access the functionality of Orber, is described, The mapping structure is included as the basic and the constructed OMG IDL types references, invocations and Erlang characteristics. An example is also provided.
CosNaming Service
Orber contains a CosNaming compliant service.
Resolving Initial References from Java or C++
A couple of classes are added to Orber to simplify initial reference access from Java or C++.
Resolving initial reference from Java
A class with only one method which returns an IORon the
external string format to the INIT object (see "Interoperable
Naming Service" specification).
Resolving initial reference from C++
A class (and header file) with only one method which returns
an IOR on the external string format to the INIT object (see
"Interoperable Naming Service" specification).
Orber Stub/Skeleton
An example which describes the API and behavior of Orber stubs and skeletons.
CORBA Exceptions
A listing of all system exceptions supported by Orber and how one should handle them. This chapter also describe how to generate user defined exceptions.
Interceptors
Descibes how to implement and activate interceptors.
OrberWeb
Offers the possibility to administrate and supervise Orber via a GUI.
Debugging
Describes how to use different tools when debugging and/or developing new applications using Orber. Also includes a FAQ, which deal with the most common mistakes when using Orber.