Contained::describe

Overview The describe operation returns a structure containing information about a CORBA::Contained Interface Repository object.
Original interface CORBA module: Contained Interface
Exceptions CORBA::SystemException


Intended Usage

The describe operation returns a structure that contains information about an Interface Repository object. The CORBA::Description structure has two fields: kind (CORBA::Contained::DefinitionKind data type), and value (CORBA::Any data type).

The kind of definition described by the returned structure is provided using the kind field, and the value field is a CORBA::Any that contains the description that is specific to the kind of object described. For example, if the describe operation is invoked on an attribute (CORBA::AttributeDef) object, the kind field is equal to CORBA::dk_Attribute and the value field contains the AttributeDescription structure.

The list of Interface Repository object types on which the describe operation may be called includes: modules (CORBA::ModuleDefs), constants (CORBA::ConstantDefs), type definitions (CORBA::TypedefDefs), exceptions (CORBA::ExceptionDefs), attributes (CORBA::AtttributeDefs), operations (CORBA::OperationDefs), and interfaces (CORBA::InterfaceDefs). For further information on the describe operation, please reference the describe operation descriptions for the object types listed above.

CORBA 2.1 specifies that the describe method on named IR objects will return a decription structure that includes the repository ID of the container within which the IR object is defined. However, one common container has no repository ID, that is the Repository itself. In this situation, the IBM implementation returns a pointer to the empty string.

Syntax

  struct Description
     {
        DefinitionKind kind;
        any value;
     };
  Description describe ();

Input parameters

None

Return values

Description *
The returned value is a pointer to a CORBA::Contained::Description structure. The memory is owned by the caller and can be removed using delete.

Example

  // C++
     // assume that 'this_attribute' has already been initialized
     CORBA::AttributeDef * this_attribute;
 
     // retrieve a description of the attribute
     CORBA::AttributeDef::Description * returned_description;
     returned_description = this_attribute-> describe ();
 
     

Related reference
CORBA module



Searchable topic ID:   rcor_modct4
Last updated: Jun 21, 2007 8:07:48 PM CDT    WebSphere Business Integration Server Foundation, Version 5.0.2
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