5. Language mapping for OpenSplice RMI

Rmipp compilation follows a set of mapping rules to generate language-specific source code. Most of these rules come from the standard OMG IDL-to-C++ and IDL-to-Java mapping specifications but with some specific differences. This chapter focuses on specific parts of this mapping. For more information, please refer to the relevant OMG specifications.

The following figure shows the language mapping of the HelloService IDL interface previously defined.

IDL Interface Mapping

5.1. Mapping for interfaces

An interface is mapped to two C++ (or Java) classes that contain public definitions of the operations defined in the interface.

The HelloServiceInterface abstract class is the base class of the HelloService implementation class. The HelloServiceInterfaceProxy class is the proxy object that represents locally the remote service. The client application should get a reference to this class to be able to invoke the remote service.

5.2. Mapping for operations

Each IDL operation, if not oneway, is mapped to two C++ functions (Java methods). The first one, having the same name as the IDL operation, is used for synchronous invocations. The second one, having async_ concatenated to the IDL operation, is used for asynchronous invocations. A oneway operation maps only to the synchronous form of the operations.

The operations parameters and return types obey the same parameter passing rules as for the standard OMG IDL-to-C++ and IDL-to-Java mapping. The asynchronous functions (methods) will return void and take only the in/inout parameters of the IDL operation, as well as a callback object used as a reply handler. This handler class is also generated for each non-void operation as an inner abstract class of the proxy class as depicted in the diagram with the greet_Reply_Handler class. This latter should be implemented by the user to handle the asynchronous invocation reply. Hence, the greet_Reply function (method) provides all the inout/out/return parameters of the corresponding IDL operation.

5.3. Mapping for basic types

The table below shows the ‘C++ and Java’ mapping of the IDL types that can be declared in the RMI services description file.

IDL sequences are mapped as specified by the DDS standard.

Mapping for basic types

IDL type	C++	Java
boolean	DDS::Boolean	boolean
char	DDS::Char	char
octet	DDS::Octet	byte
short	DDS::Short	short
unsigned short	DDS::UShort	short
long	DDS::Long	int
unsigned long	DDS::ULong	int
long long	DDS::LongLong	long
unsigned long long	DDS::ULongLong	long
float	DDS::Float	float
double	DDS::Double	double
string	DDS::String	String

Please be aware that the RMI middleware assumes ownership of any DDS::String that is provided to it (either by an in/inout argument or return value). This also means that it’ll free the given string. This can cause issues when the application keeps using the provided string after the RMI call or if RMI is called with a const string literal. It is advised to apply DDS::string_dup(str) when using strings in conjunction with RMI. This is also applicable to sequences of strings.