documentation/papers/corba.txt

Using CORBA
===========

Contents
--------
 - Setting up JacORB
 - Getting jacorb.properties
 - Running applications with JacORB
 - Future Additions

   tdb1, 09/11/00.

Setting up JacORB
-----------------
NOTE: There are no instructions for setting this up on the 
      public pc's. You probably don't want to anyway :)

JacORB is quite quick and easy to setup on raptor. All it 
takes is a few path modifications, and an alteration to your 
classpath. These are probably easiest added to your .cshrc.

Firstly add the following to your PATH. It should be added 
at the front in case there's another IDL compiling lurking 
around.... (which there is on raptor).

/usr/local/work/co610/JacORB/bin

Then you need to add the following to your CLASSPATH. 
Chances are it was never set in the first place, so just 
bung this in. Don't forget the dot at the end !

/usr/local/work/co610/JacORB/lib/idl.jar:
/usr/local/work/co610/JacORB/lib/jacorb.jar:. 

(This should all be on ONE LINE!)

That should have you ready to go. You just need the 
jacorb.properties file... see below.

On killigrew just replace "/usr/local/work/co610/JacORB"
with "/usr/local/JacORB" in all three places it occurs in
above paths.

Getting jacorb.properties
-------------------------
JacORB reads it's configuration from a text file called 
jacorb.properties. This file should reside in your home 
directory (either /home/cut/username or ~/) and be readable 
by JacORB.

In particular this file contains URLs to get locate various 
CORBA services, the most important being the Name Service. 
The URL points to a file on a webserver which contains a 
stringified CORBA object reference which the Java software 
can make use of.

The servers themselve are running on Killigrew, and the 
object references are on the webserver on the same machine. 
You can download a copy of jacorb.properties from the 
following address. You'll probably need to right-click and 
save it.

http://killigrew.ukc.ac.uk/jacorb.properties

Alterantively, on raptor;

cd ~
wget http://killigrew.ukc.ac.uk/jacorb.properties

NOTE: These CORBA services and the webserver are only 
      available from the UKC network.

Running applications with JacORB
--------------------------------
Compiling applications is as a normal program, using javac. 
However, to run a program you should use jaco instead of 
java. All this does is fire up a few other things... I don't 
know what off hand... it just works :)

A common thing to want to change is the amount of debugging 
info sent back to you by JacORB. The default in the above 
jacorb.properties file is 0, but you can set it with higher 
values (3 may be the highest). The lower the number the less 
info you get. Setting it to 1 gives some nice info about the 
various connections going on. The value in jacorb.properties 
you need to change is;

jacorb.verbosity=0

Future Additions
----------------
Hopefully, if I have time, I will add some brief snippets of 
code to get going with CORBA. In the mean time, the example 
on the CO610 homepage is a good start :)

About
-----
This document was written by Tim Bishop [tdb@i-scream.org] for 
use by the team working on a 3rd year Computer Science 
project called "i-scream". More details can be found on the 
project website;

http://www.i-scream.org
Revision:	1.2
Committed:	Sun Aug 1 10:39:54 2004 UTC (20 years, 3 months ago) by tdb
Content type:	text/plain
Branch:	MAIN
CVS Tags:	HEAD
Changes since 1.1:	+2 -2 lines
Log Message:	Catch a lot of old URL's and update them. Also remove a couple of old files that aren't used.
#	Content
1	Using CORBA
2	===========
3
4	Contents
5	--------
6	- Setting up JacORB
7	- Getting jacorb.properties
8	- Running applications with JacORB
9	- Future Additions
10
11	tdb1, 09/11/00.
12
13	Setting up JacORB
14	-----------------
15	NOTE: There are no instructions for setting this up on the
16	public pc's. You probably don't want to anyway :)
17
18	JacORB is quite quick and easy to setup on raptor. All it
19	takes is a few path modifications, and an alteration to your
20	classpath. These are probably easiest added to your .cshrc.
21
22	Firstly add the following to your PATH. It should be added
23	at the front in case there's another IDL compiling lurking
24	around.... (which there is on raptor).
25
26	/usr/local/work/co610/JacORB/bin
27
28	Then you need to add the following to your CLASSPATH.
29	Chances are it was never set in the first place, so just
30	bung this in. Don't forget the dot at the end !
31
32	/usr/local/work/co610/JacORB/lib/idl.jar:
33	/usr/local/work/co610/JacORB/lib/jacorb.jar:.
34
35	(This should all be on ONE LINE!)
36
37	That should have you ready to go. You just need the
38	jacorb.properties file... see below.
39
40	On killigrew just replace "/usr/local/work/co610/JacORB"
41	with "/usr/local/JacORB" in all three places it occurs in
42	above paths.
43
44	Getting jacorb.properties
45	-------------------------
46	JacORB reads it's configuration from a text file called
47	jacorb.properties. This file should reside in your home
48	directory (either /home/cut/username or ~/) and be readable
49	by JacORB.
50
51	In particular this file contains URLs to get locate various
52	CORBA services, the most important being the Name Service.
53	The URL points to a file on a webserver which contains a
54	stringified CORBA object reference which the Java software
55	can make use of.
56
57	The servers themselve are running on Killigrew, and the
58	object references are on the webserver on the same machine.
59	You can download a copy of jacorb.properties from the
60	following address. You'll probably need to right-click and
61	save it.
62
63	http://killigrew.ukc.ac.uk/jacorb.properties
64
65	Alterantively, on raptor;
66
67	cd ~
68	wget http://killigrew.ukc.ac.uk/jacorb.properties
69
70	NOTE: These CORBA services and the webserver are only
71	available from the UKC network.
72
73	Running applications with JacORB
74	--------------------------------
75	Compiling applications is as a normal program, using javac.
76	However, to run a program you should use jaco instead of
77	java. All this does is fire up a few other things... I don't
78	know what off hand... it just works :)
79
80	A common thing to want to change is the amount of debugging
81	info sent back to you by JacORB. The default in the above
82	jacorb.properties file is 0, but you can set it with higher
83	values (3 may be the highest). The lower the number the less
84	info you get. Setting it to 1 gives some nice info about the
85	various connections going on. The value in jacorb.properties
86	you need to change is;
87
88	jacorb.verbosity=0
89
90	Future Additions
91	----------------
92	Hopefully, if I have time, I will add some brief snippets of
93	code to get going with CORBA. In the mean time, the example
94	on the CO610 homepage is a good start :)
95
96	About
97	-----
98	This document was written by Tim Bishop [tdb@i-scream.org] for
99	use by the team working on a 3rd year Computer Science
100	project called "i-scream". More details can be found on the
101	project website;
102
103	http://www.i-scream.org