Bionic Buffalo Tech Note #52: Object Keys, Object Identifiers, and Adapter Names
tag
description of use
dbg
debug information; interpretation is ORB-specific
oid
object identifier, as known to servant, but escaped as described above
poa
POA pathname (formed from POA names as described above)
rem
human-readable remarks, ignored by ORB
src
information about the source of the key (who and when created)
ver
version of this format (this is A.0.0.3)
Some Tatanka
TM
ORBs recognize other tags. Some also permit metadata, allowing indirect references,
compression, variable substitution, and other features. Their use is ORB-dependent, and the
interpretation of specific tags and metadata are not discussed here.
Use of Object Keys in
corbaloc:iiop
URLs
A
corbaloc:iiop
URL allows the specification of object keys. It is a string of the form
corbaloc:<address_list>/<object_key>
where each member of the <address_list> is an IIOP address in a specified form. The <object_key> is
mapped from the object key used in the IOR. The mapping is done by escaping octets or characters
which are not permitted in URLs. In Bionic Buffalo ORBs, such forbidden characters are already
escaped (as described above), so the <object_key> in the
corbaloc:iiop
URL is the same as the
object key used in the IOR.
More characters are permitted unescaped in URL object keys than are permitted in POA names or in
OID values. The additional permitted characters are
: ? @ & = + $
These characters (but no others) may be used unescaped by specific ORBs for metadata or within
additional named values. Bionic Buffalo ORBs will not create object keys from characters which
require escaping.
When the syntax and semantics of an OID are understood,
corbaloc:iiop
URLs can be used to
create object references without the use of naming or trading services. (This is normally the only
situation where applications might need to know about object keys. Normally, object keys are opaque
to applications.) For example, by passing the string
“corbaloc:iiop:abc.def.com/poa=ns/fs:”
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