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WebSphere Application Server provides CORBA support that enables the use of CORBA interfaces between a server object providing a service and a client using the service. In practice this means WebSphere C++ CORBA servers and WebSphere EJB services can be accessed by CORBA clients, and WebSphere CORBA clients can access CORBA servers.
As part of the WebSphere J2EE environment, the C++ CORBA support provides a basic CORBA environment that can bootstrap into the J2EE name space and can invoke J2EE transactions. However, it does not provide its own Naming and Transaction services, for which a C++ CORBA client or server relies on the J2EE environment as a service provider. The C++ CORBA technology is provided on Solaris (Forte C++), AIX (VisualAge for C++), and Windows NT and Windows 2000 (Microsoft Visual C++).
The CORBA support comprises the following two main areas of functionality:
With CORBA interoperation, distributed objects are invoked using the ORB included with WebSphere. This enables the propagation of service contexts such as in-progress transactions. Because these service contexts are potentially usable by the third-party ORB receiving the calls, you might (for example) be able to include processing performed by the third-party ORB within the scope of a WebSphere-initiated transaction.
If CORBA interoperation is inadequate, you can consider ORB coexistence as an alternative solution. Coexistence refers to the ability of two different ORB runtime environments to reside and function in the same process. With coexistence, distributed objects are invoked using a 3rd-party ORB running in the WebSphere environment. This allows the 3rd-party ORB's bootstrapping protocol and vendor-specific APIs to be used.
The CORBA interoperation functionality uses a CORBA value type library for C++, provided as part of the WebSphere CORBA support, that simplifies calls from CORBA to Enterprise JavaBeans. The CORBA interoperation environments supported include VisiBroker C++ 3.3.3, VisiBroker Java 3.4, VisiBroker C++/Java 4.0/4.1, Orbix C++ 3.0.1 (except Solaris), Orbix C++ 3.0.2 (Solaris only), Orbix Web 3.2, and Orbix2000 C++/Java 1.2. The platforms supported include AIX 4.3.3, NT 4.0, Windows 2000, and Solaris 2.7.
To make use of the CORBA support provided by WebSphere Application Server you should be familiar with the CORBA specification and programming model. You should also be familiar with WebSphere Application Server application development.
The following articles provide the main conceptual information about the CORBA support:
Related tasks... | |
Developing a C++ CORBA client | |
Developing a C++ CORBA server | |
Related concepts... | |
An overview of basic CORBA concepts | |