The GNOME CORBA Framework

The GNOME CORBA framework allows applications to easily use ORBit, the CORBA implementation used by GNOME. One part of this framework provides integration of the ORBit main loop with the Gtk+ main loop, security for incoming CORBA requests, and a standard method of accessing the GNOME name service.

To allow applications to request access to a specific CORBA object, GNOME CORBA servers place information in GOAD, the GNOME Object Activation Directory. This directory stores information on the CORBA objects that a program can provide to other programs. Each directory entry contains a unique implementation identifier (the "GOAD ID"), a list of interfaces that the object supports, a human-readable description of the object implementation, and information on how to create a new instance of the object implementation.

If an application provides the implementation for a CORBA object, it is simple to integrate that object into the GOAD system. An application would install a '.goad' data file into the correct directory as part of its installation process. Then, a few simple function calls must be made when the object is created and destroyed, and the application must handle an extra command line option. Once an object implementation is registered with GOAD, client applications can activate that implementation with a single function call.

Also provided as part of the GNOME CORBA framework are a number of interface definitions for commonly used interfaces, such as factories and reference-counted objects.