Loading Server_Stub When Starting Server

Question

Is it possible to have a Remote Server Class ***Stub.class, that does not reside in the local classpath but rather the codebase or any http server?  I would like to call: (java -D.... ServerImpl args) and before I export myself within ServerImpl, I use a URLConnection or something to get ServerImplStub from a remote location and load into the local JVM so the Stub is found when I start the Remote Server.
So you know, I do not use rmiregistry, I start my server like this: (simple example)
import java.rmi.server.ObjID;
import java.rmi.RemoteException;
import sun.rmi.transport.LiveRef;
import sun.rmi.server.UnicastServerRef;
public class BigDogImpl extends UnicastRemoteRef implements BigDog
     public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception
          // do some stuf none related here
         new BigDogImpl();
     public BigDogImpl() throws Exception
          super(new LiveRef(new ObjID(999), 1099));
          // right here our maybe in main, load the BigDigImpl_Stub via http into local jvm??
          // the idea is to have loaded the stub file from a remote location and made it available to JVM so this line works
          exportObject(this, null);
          while(true)
               try{ Thread.currentThread().sleep(Long.MAX_VALUE); }
               catch(Exception e)[}
     // BigDog interface definitions here
// The client would get a RemoteRef like this:
// all clients export pieces of themselves, so they define the same codebase as server
// becuase of this, I can use RMIClassLoader.getClassAnnotation(Class remoteClass) for codebase
Class stub = RMIClassLoader.loadClass(RMIClassLoader.getClassAnnotation(clientClass), "BigDogImpl_Stub");
Constructor stubConstructor = stub.getConstructor(new Class[]{RemoteRef.class});
LiveRef liveRef = new LiveRef(new ObjID(999), new TCPEndpoint("host", 1099), false);
RemoteRef[] remoteRef = {(RemoteRef)(new UnicastRef(liveRef))};
BigDog bigDog = (BigDog)stubConstructor.newInstance(remoteRef);
bigDog.bigBark();By the way, the above forbidden code has worked since jdk1.2 so I have been lucky the API has not changed. If it does, I dont have to change much! I mean, the above code is what runs when implementing a public API RemoteServer and Client. I use it becuase it removes a point of failure, RMIREGISTRY. No matter how stable it may or may not be, it is still something extra to ensure is working properly.

Answer 1

I have figured this out by overridding a method within UnicastServerRef called setSkeleton(). This is the method which is responsible for creating the RemoteStub object utilizing default class loader. So naturally the one I need to adjust.
public RemoteStub setSkeleton(Remote remote) throws RemoteException
     try
          URLClassLoader loader = new URLClassLoader(new URL[]{CODEBASE)});
          Class c = loader.loadClass(remote.getClass().getName() + "_Stub");
          Constructor constructor = c.getConstructor(new Class[]{RemoteRef.class});
          return (RemoteStub)constructor.newInstance(new Object[]{getClientRef()});
     catch(Exception e)
          throw new RemoteException("", e);
}My implementation is a combination of UnicastServerRef's setSkeleton and RemoteProxy.getStub(). setKeleton calls RemoteProxy.getStub() which is where my StubNotFoundException was generated. So All i did was bypass this process by overriding setSkeleton().
// UnicastServerRef.setSkeleton() returns this
return RemoteProxy.getStub(.....);
So now I only need to maintain stub files in the codebase. No remote server needs them locally.
If anyone knows how this can be done with a custom classloader and public API, I'm all ears.