Problem using CORBA clients with RMI/EJB servers..!!!???

Question

Hi,
I have a question on using EJB / or RMI servers with CORBA clients using
RMI-IIOP transport, which in theory should work, but in practice has few
glitches.
Basically, I have implemented a very simple server, StockTreader, which
looks up for a symbol and returns a 'Stock' object. In the first example, I
simplified the 'Stock' object to be a mere java.lang.String, so that lookup
would simply return the 'synbol'.
Then I have implemented the above, as an RMI-IIOP server (case 1) and a
CORBA server (case 2) with respective clients, and the pair of
client-servers work fine as long as they are CORBA-to-CORBA and RMI-to-RMI.
But the problem arises when I tried using the RMI server (via IIOP) with the
CORBA client, when the client tries to narrow the object ref obtained from
the naming service into the CORBA idl defined type (StockTrader) it ends up
with a class cast exception.
This is what I did to achieve the above results:
[1] Define an RMI interface StockTrader.java (extending java.rmi.Remote)
with the method,
public String lookup( String symbol) throws RMIException;
[2] Implement the StorckTrader interface (on a PortableRemoteObject derived
class, to make it IIOP compliant), and then the server to register the stock
trader with COS Naming service as follows:
String homeName =....
StockTraderImpl trader =new StockTraderImpl();
System.out.println("binding obj <" homeName ">...");
java.util.Hashtable ht =new java.util.Hashtable();
ht.put("java.naming.factory.initial", args[2]);
ht.put("java.naming.provider.url", args[3]);
Context ctx =new InitialContext(ht);
ctx.rebind(homeName, trader);
[3] Generate the RMI-IIOP skeletons for the Implementation class,
rmic -iiop stock.StockTraderImpl
[4] generate the IDL for the RMI interface,
rmic -idl stock.StockTraderImpl
[5] Generate IDL stubs for the CORBA client,
idlj -v -fclient -emitAll StockTraderImpl.idl
[6] Write the client to use the IDL-defined stock trader,
String serverName =args[0];
String symList =args[1];
StockClient client =new StockClient();
System.out.println("init orb...");
ORB orb =ORB.init(args, null);
System.out.println("resolve init name service...");
org.omg.CORBA.Object objRef
=orb.resolve_initial_references("NameService");
NamingContext naming =NamingContextHelper.narrow(objRef);
... define a naming component etc...
org.omg.CORBA.Object obj =naming.resolve(...);
System.out.println("narrow objRef: " obj.getClass() ": " +obj);
StockTrader trader =StockTraderHelper.narrow(obj);
[7] Compile all the classes using Java 1.2.2
[8] start tnameserv (naming service), then the server to register the RMI
server obj
[9] Run the CORBA client, passing it the COSNaming service ref name (with
which the server obj is registered)
The CORBA client successfully finds the server obj ref in the naming
service, the operation StockTraderHelper.narrow() fails in the segment
below, with a class cast exception:
org.omg.CORBA.Object obj =naming.resolve(...);
StockTrader trader =StockTraderHelper.narrow(obj);
The <obj> returned by naming service turns out to be of the type;
class com.sun.rmi.iiop.CDRInputStream$1
This is of the same type when stock trader object is registered in a CORBA
server (as opposed to an RMI server), but works correctly with no casting
excpetions..
Any ideas / hints very welcome.
thanks in advance,
-hari

Answer 1

On the contrary... all that is being said is that we needed to provide clearer examples/documentation in the 5.1.0 release. There will be no difference between the product as found in the service pack and the product found in the 5.1.1. That is, the only substantive will be that 5.1.1 will also
include the examples.
"<=one way=>" wrote:
With reference to your and other messages, it appears that one should not
expect that WLS RMI-IIOP will work in a complex real-life system, at least
not now. In other words, support for real-life CORBA clients is not an
option in the current release of WLS.
TIA
"Eduardo Ceballos" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
We currently publish an IDL example, even though the IDL programmingmodel in Java is completely non-functional, in anticipation of the support
needs for uses who need to use IDL to talk to the Weblogic server,
generically. This example illustrates the simplest connectivity; it does not
address how
to integrate CORBA and EJB, a broad topic, fraught with peril, imo. I'llnote in passing that, to my knowledge, none of the other vendors attempt
this topic either, a point which is telling if all the less happy to hear.
For the record then, what is missing from our distribution wrt RMI-IIOPare a RMI-IIOP example, an EJB-IIOP example, an EJB-C++. In this you are
correct; better examples are forth coming.
Still, I would not call our RMI-IIOP implementation fragile. I would saythat customers have an understandably hard time accepting that the IDL
programming model is busted; busted in the sense that there are no C++
libraries to support the EJB model, and busted in the sense that there is
simply no
support in Java for an IDL interface to an EJB. Weblogic has nothing to doit being busted, although we are trying to help our customers deal with it
in productive ways.
For the moment, what there is is a RMI (over IIOP) programming model, aninherently Java to Java programming model, and true to that, we accept and
dispatch IIOP request into RMI server objects. The way I look at it is this:
it's just a protocol, like HTTP, or JRMP; it's not IDL and it has
practically nothing to do with CORBA.
ST wrote:
Eduardo,
Can you give us more details about the comment below:
I fear that as soon as the call to narrow succeeds, the remainingapplication will fail to work correctly because it is too difficult ot
use an idl client in java to work.It seems to me that Weblogic's RMI-IIOP is a very fragile
implementation. We
don't need a "HelloWorld" example, we need a concrete serious example(fully
tested and seriously documented) that works so that we can get a betteridea
on how to integrate CORBA and EJB.
Thanks,
Said
"Eduardo Ceballos" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
Please post request to the news group...
As I said, you must separate the idl related classes (class files and
java
files) from the rmi classes... in the rmic step, you must set a newtarget
(as you did), emit the java files into that directory (it's not clearyou
did this), then remove all the rmi class files from the class path... ifyou
need to compile more classes at that point, copy the java files to theidl
directly is you must, but you can not share the types in any way.
I fear that as soon as the call to narrow succeeds, the remainingapplication will fail to work correctly because it is too difficult otuse
an idl client in java to work.
Harindra Rajapakshe wrote:
Hi Eduardo,
Thanks for the help. That is the way I compiled my CORBA client, by
separating the IDL-generated stubs from the RMI ones, but still I
get a
CORBA.BAD_PARAM upon narrowing the client proxy to the interfacetype.
Here's what I did;
+ Define the RMI interfaces, in this case a StockTrader interface.
+ Implement RMI interface by extendingjavax.rmi.PortableRemoteObject
making
it IIOP compliant
+ Implemnnt an RMI server, and compile using JDK1.2.2
+ use the RMI implementation to generate CORBA idl, using RMI-IIOPplugin
utility rmic;
rmic -idl -noValueMethods -always -d idl stock.StockTraderImpl
+ generate Java mappings to the IDL generated above, using RMI-IIOPplugin
util,
idlj -v -fclient -emitAll -tf src stocks\StockTrader.idl
This creates source for the package stock and also
org.omg.CORBA.*
package, presumably IIOP type marshalling
+ compile all classes generated above using JDK1.2.2
+ Implement client (CORBA) using the classes generated above, NOTthe
RMI
proxies.
+ start RMI server, with stockTrader server obj
+ start tnameserv
+ start CORBA client
Then the client errors when trying to narrow the obj ref from the
naming
service, into the CORBA IDL defined interface using,
org.omg.CORBA.Object obj =naming.resolve(nn);
StockTrader trader =StockTraderHelper.narrow(obj); // THIS
ERRORS..!!!
throwing a CORBA.BAD_PARAM exception.
any ideas..?
Thanks in advance,
-hari
----- Original Message -----
From: Eduardo Ceballos <[email protected]>
Newsgroups: weblogic.developer.interest.rmi-iiop
To: Hari Rajapakshe <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, July 26, 2000 4:38 AM
Subject: Re: problem using CORBA clients with RMI/EJBservers..!!!???
Please see the post on june 26, re Errors compiling... somewherein
there,
I suspect, you are referring to the rmi class file when you are
obliged
to
completely segregate these from the idl class files.
Hari Rajapakshe wrote:
Hi,
I have a question on using EJB / or RMI servers with CORBA
clients
using
RMI-IIOP transport, which in theory should work, but in practice
has
few
glitches.
Basically, I have implemented a very simple server,
StockTreader,
which
looks up for a symbol and returns a 'Stock' object. In the firstexample, I
simplified the 'Stock' object to be a mere java.lang.String, so
that
lookup
would simply return the 'synbol'.
Then I have implemented the above, as an RMI-IIOP server (case
1)
and a
CORBA server (case 2) with respective clients, and the pair of
client-servers work fine as long as they are CORBA-to-CORBA andRMI-to-RMI.
But the problem arises when I tried using the RMI server (via
IIOP)
with
the
CORBA client, when the client tries to narrow the object ref
obtained
from
the naming service into the CORBA idl defined type (StockTrader)
it
ends
up
with a class cast exception.
This is what I did to achieve the above results:
[1] Define an RMI interface StockTrader.java (extending
java.rmi.Remote)
with the method,
public String lookup( String symbol) throws RMIException;
[2] Implement the StorckTrader interface (on a
PortableRemoteObject
derived
class, to make it IIOP compliant), and then the server to
register
the
stock
trader with COS Naming service as follows:
String homeName =....
StockTraderImpl trader =new StockTraderImpl();
System.out.println("binding obj <" homeName ">...");
java.util.Hashtable ht =new java.util.Hashtable();
ht.put("java.naming.factory.initial", args[2]);
ht.put("java.naming.provider.url", args[3]);
Context ctx =new InitialContext(ht);
ctx.rebind(homeName, trader);
[3] Generate the RMI-IIOP skeletons for the Implementation
class,
rmic -iiop stock.StockTraderImpl
[4] generate the IDL for the RMI interface,
rmic -idl stock.StockTraderImpl
[5] Generate IDL stubs for the CORBA client,
idlj -v -fclient -emitAll StockTraderImpl.idl
[6] Write the client to use the IDL-defined stock trader,
String serverName =args[0];
String symList =args[1];
StockClient client =new StockClient();
System.out.println("init orb...");
ORB orb =ORB.init(args, null);
System.out.println("resolve init name service...");
org.omg.CORBA.Object objRef
=orb.resolve_initial_references("NameService");
NamingContext naming=NamingContextHelper.narrow(objRef);
... define a naming component etc...
org.omg.CORBA.Object obj =naming.resolve(...);
System.out.println("narrow objRef: " obj.getClass() ":"
+obj);
StockTrader trader =StockTraderHelper.narrow(obj);
[7] Compile all the classes using Java 1.2.2
[8] start tnameserv (naming service), then the server to
register
the
RMI
server obj
[9] Run the CORBA client, passing it the COSNaming service ref
name
(with
which the server obj is registered)
The CORBA client successfully finds the server obj ref in the
naming
service, the operation StockTraderHelper.narrow() fails in thesegment
below, with a class cast exception:
org.omg.CORBA.Object obj =naming.resolve(...);
StockTrader trader =StockTraderHelper.narrow(obj);
The <obj> returned by naming service turns out to be of the
type;
class com.sun.rmi.iiop.CDRInputStream$1
This is of the same type when stock trader object is registeredin a
CORBA
server (as opposed to an RMI server), but works correctly with
no
casting
excpetions..
Any ideas / hints very welcome.
thanks in advance,
-hari