Obtaining CORBA Object References

Question

I have found two separate references on the Sun site to the different ways in which clients may reference CORBA objects. In each case, three methods are listed, but one item in each list seems to be different from the 'corresponding' item in the other list.
At URL http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/docs/guide/idl/jidlInitialization.html, the following list is given:
1. From a string that was specially created from an object reference
2. From another object, such as a naming context
3. From the ORB operation resolve_initial_references()
[Numbers added by me for ease of reference.]
At URL http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.3/docs/guide/idl/jidlUsingCORBA.html, the following list is given:
1. from a factory object. For example, the client could invoke a create method on DocumentFactory
object in order to create a new Document. The DocumentFactory create method would return an
object refererence for Document to the client.
2. from the nameservice. For example, the client could obtain an object reference for the
DocumentFactory by issuing a request on the nameservice.
3. From a string that was specially created from an object reference
Though items 1 and 2 from the first list seem to correspond closely to items 3 and 2 respectively from the second list, item 3 (list 1) and item 1(list 2) do not. Does anybody know how this apparent anomaly can be resolved and which (if either) of these lists is (more?) correct?
Thanks in anticipation.
Jan

Answer 1

There really is not an anomaly here. What you are indicating as an anomaly is really two distinct things.
There are always two steps here:
1. How does your client get the initial object reference to the server object(s). The list 1 comprehensively describes that. Typically the initial object references will be few.
2. Once the initial references are acquired, client can make calls using these initial references to get other object references, during the clients life time. The item 1 in list 2 is a way of doing this.
The list 1 is giving you ALL possible ways of acquiring an object reference for the very FIRST time.
Item 1 in list 2 is actually suggesting a pattern or a way or doing something. For example, if your client wishes to create multiple objects of a certain family, you can use a DocumentFactory on the server side. You would acquire initial reference to the DocumentFactory using one of the ways described in List 1. Once the client has the DocumentFactory reference, it can call create on it to create Document objects on the server side. Also, the create() method will return a reference to the Document object to the client.