Component adapters

The CCM specification hides most of the CORBA programming details from the application developer, but it still forces the developer to deal with CORBA references, data types and memory management. While the OMG Java mapping [9] is acceptable in this regard, the C++ mapping [8] does not use the advantages of standard C++ like strings, vectors and lists.

To improve the usability of CCM, we proposed a new approach [13] that provides an easy way to implement business logic without having to pay attention to CORBA details.

Figure B.1: Local component adapter

In our approach, we separate the application code from the implementation of the CORBA component logic (Fig. B.1). For every IDL definition of a CORBA interface or component, we generate a corresponding interface in the native implementation language. An adapter class [3] provides the CORBA mappings, and links the different implementation of business logic to the CCM component.

It is important to keep in mind that these adapters do not change the client view of a component, so our approach still conforms to the CCM standard.