idlj
idlj(1) idlj(1)NAME
idlj - The IDL-to-Java Compiler (RMI-IIOP version) idlj generates Java bindings from a given IDL file.SYNOPSIS
idlj [ options ] idl-file where idl-file is the name of a file containing Interface Definition Language (IDL) definitions. Options may appear in any order, but must precede the idl-file.DESCRIPTION
The IDL-to-Java Compiler generates the Java bindings for a given IDL file. For binding details, see the OMG IDL to Java Language Mapping Specification. Some previous releases of the IDL-to-Java compiler were named idltojava. Emitting Client and Server Bindings To generate Java bindings for an IDL file named My.idl: idlj My.idl This generates the client-side bindings and is equivalent to: idlj -fclient My.idl The client-side bindings do not include the server-side skeleton. If you want to generate the server-side bindings for the interfaces: idlj -fserver My.idl Server-side bindings include the client-side bindings plus the skeleton, all of which are POA (that is, Inheritance Model) classes. If you want to generate both client and server-side bindings, use one of the following (equiva lent) commands: idlj -fclient -fserver My.idl idlj -fall My.idl There are two possible server-side models: the Inneritance Model and the Tie Model. NEW in 1.4! The default server-side model is the Portable Servant Inheritance Model. Given an interface My defined in My.idl, the file MyPOA.java is generated. You must pro vide the implementation for My and it must inherit from MyPOA. MyPOA.java is a stream-based skeleton that extends org.omg.PortableServer.Servant and implements the Invoke Handler interface and the operations interface associated with the IDL interface the skeleton implements. The PortableServer module for the PortableObjectAdapter (POA) defines the native Servant type. In the Java pro gramming language, the Servant type is mapped to the Java org.omg.PortableServer.Servant class. It serves as the base class for all POA servant implementations and provides a number of methods that may be invoked by the application programmer, as well as methods which are invoked by the POA itself and may be overridden by the user to control aspects of servant behavior. Another option for the Inheritance Model is to use the -oldImplBase flag in order to generate server-side bind ings that are compatible with older version of the Java programming language (prior to J2SE 1.4). To generate server-side bindings that are backwards compatible: idlj -fclient -fserver -oldImplBase My.idl idlj -fall -oldImplBase My.idl Given an interface My defined in My.idl, the file _MyIm pleBase.java is generated. You must provide the implemen tation for My and it must inherit from _MyImplBase. The other server-side model is called the Tie Model. This is a delegation model. Because it is not possible to gen erate ties and skeletons at the same time, they must be generated separately. The following commands generate the bindings for the Tie Model: idlj -fall My.idl idlj -fallTIE My.idl For the interface My, the second command generates MyPOATie.java. The constructor to MyPOATie takes a dele gate. You must provide the implementation for delegate, but it does not have to inherit from any other class, only the interface MyOperations. But to use it with the ORB, you must wrap your implementation within MyPOATie. For instance: MyImpl myImpl = new MyImpl (); My POATie tie = new MyPOATie (myImpl); orb.connect (tie); You might want to use the Tie model instead of the typical Inheritance model if your implementation must inherit from some other implementation. Java allows any number of interface inheritance, but there is only one slot for class inheritance. If you the inheritance model, that slot is used up . By using the Tie Model, that slot is freed up for your own use. The drawback is that it introduces a level of indirection: one extra method call occurs when invoking a method. To generate server-side, Tie model bindings that are com patible with older version of the IDL to Java language mapping in versions of J2SE before 1.4. idlj -oldImplBase -fall My.idl idlj -oldImplBase -fallTIE My.idl For the interface My, this will generate My_Tie.java. The constructor to My_Tie takes a impl. You must provide the implementation for impl, but it does not have to inherit from any other class, only the interface HelloOperations. But to use it with the ORB, wrap your implementa tion within My_Tie. For instance: MyImpl myImpl = new MyImpl (); My_Tie tie = new My_Tie (myImpl); orb.connect (tie); Specifying Alternate Locations for Emitted Files If you want to direct the emitted files to a directory other than the current directory, invoke the compiler as: idlj -td /altdir My.idl For the interface My, the bindings will be emitted to /altdir/My.java, etc., instead of ./My.java. Specifying Alternate Locations for Include Files If My.idl included another idl file, MyOther.idl, the com piler assumes that MyOther.idl resides in the local direc tory. If it resides in /includes, for example, then you would invoke the compiler with the following command: idlj -i /includes My.idl If My.idl also included Another.idl that resided in /mor eIncludes, for example, then you would invoke the compiler with the following command: idlj -i /includes -i /moreIncludes My.idl Since this form of include can become irritatingly long, another means of indicating to the compiler where to search for included files is provided. This technique is similar to the idea of an environment variable. Create a file named idl.config in a directory that is listed in your CLASSPATH. Inside of idl.config, provide a line with the following form: includes=/includes;/moreIncludes The compiler will find this file and read in the includes list. Note that in this example the separator character between the two directories is a semicolon (;). This sepa rator character is platform dependent. On NT it is a semi colon, on Solaris it is a colon, etc. For more informa tion on includes, read the CLASSPATH documentation. Emitting Bindings for Include Files By default, only those interfaces, structs, etc, that are defined in the idl file on the command line have Java bindings generated for them. The types defined in included files are not generated. For example, assume the follow ing two idl files: My.idl #include <MyOther.idl> interface My { }; MyOther.idl interface MyOther { }; The following command will only generate the java bindings for My: idlj My.idl To generate all of the types in My.idl and all of the types in the files that My.idl includes (in this example, MyOther.idl), use the following command: idlj -emitAll My.idl There is a caveat to the default rule. #include state ments which appear at global scope are treated as described. These #include statements can be thought of as import statements. #include statements which appear within some enclosing scope are treated as true #include statements, meaning that the code within the included file is treated as if it appeared in the original file and, therefore, Java bindings are emitted for it. Here is an example: My.idl #include <MyOther.idl> interface My { #include <Embedded.idl> }; MyOther.idl interface MyOther { }; Embedded.idl enum E {one, two, three}; Running the following command: idlj My.idl will generate the following list of Java files: Notice that MyOther.java was not generated because it is defined in an import-like #include. But E.java was gener ated because it was defined in a true #include. Also notice that since Embedded.idl was included within the scope of the interface My, it appears within the scope of My (that is,in MyPackage). If the -emitAll flag had been used in the previous exam ple, then all types in all included files would be emit ted. Inserting Package Prefixes Suppose that you work for a company named ABC that has constructed the following IDL file: Widgets. idl module Widgets { interface W1 {...}; interface W2 {...}; }; Running this file through the IDL-to-Java compiler will place the Java bindings for W1 and W2 within the package Widgets. But there is an industry convention that states that a company's packages should reside within a package named com.<companyname>. The Widgets package is not good enough. To follow convention, it should be com.abc.Wid gets. To place this package prefix onto the Widgets mod ule, execute the following: idlj -pkgPrefix Widgets com.abc Widgets.idl If you have an IDL file which includes Widgets.idl, the -pkgPrefix flag must appear in that command also. If it does not, then your IDL file will be looking for a Widgets package rather than a com.abc.Widgets package. If you have a number of these packages that require pre fixes, it might be easier to place them into the idl.con fig file described above. Each package prefix line should be of the form: PkgPrefix.<type>=<prefix> So the line for the above example would be: PkgPrefix.Widgets=com.abc The use of this options does not affect the Repository ID. Defining Symbols Before Compilation You may need to define a symbol for compilation that is not defined within the IDL file, perhaps to include debug ging code in the bindings. The command idlj -d MYDEF My.idl is the equivalent of putting the line #define MYDEF inside My.idl. Preserving Pre-Existing Bindings If the Java binding files already exist, the -keep flag will keep the compiler from overwriting them. The default is to generate all files without considering if they already exist. If you've customized those files (which you should not do unless you are very comfortable with their contents), then the -keep option is very useful. The com mand idlj -keep My.idl emit all client-side bindings that do not already exist. Viewing Progress of Compilation The IDL-to-Java compiler will generate status messages as it progresses through its phases of execution. Use the -v option to activate this "verbose" mode: idlj -v My.idl By default the compiler does not operate in verbose mode. Displaying Version Information To display the build version of the IDL-to-Java compiler, specify the -version option on the command-line: idlj -version Version information also appears within the bindings generated by the compiler. Any additional options appear ing on the command-line are ignored.OPTIONS
-d symbol This is equivalent to the following line in an IDL file: #define symbol -emitAll Emit all types, including those found in #include files. -fside Defines what bindings to emit. side is one of client, server, serverTIE, all, or allTIE.The -fserverTIEand -fallTIE options cause delegate model skeletons to be emitted. Assumes -fclient if the flag is not specified. -i include-path By default, the current directory is scanned for included files. This option adds another directory. -keep If a file to be generated already exists, do not overwrite it. By default it is overwritten. -noWarn Supresses warning messages. -oldImplBase Generates skeletons compatible with old (pre-1.4) JDK ORBs. By default, the POA Inheritance Model server-side bindings are generated. This option provides backward-compatibility with older versions of the Java programming language by generating server-side bindings that are ImplBase Inheritance Model classes. -pkgPrefix type prefix Wherever type is encountered at file scope, prefix the generated Java package name with prefix for all files generated for that type. The type is the sim ple name of either a top-level module, or an IDL type defined outside of any module. -pkgTranslate type package Wherever the type or module name type is encoun tered, replace it in the with package for all files in the generated Java package. Note that pkgPrefix changes are made first. type is the simple name of either a top-level module, or an IDL type defined outside of any module, and must match the full package name exactly. Also note that the following package names cannot be translated: · org · org.omg or any subpackages of org.omg Any attempt to translate these packages will result in uncompilable code, and the use of these packages as the first argument after -pkgTranslate will be treated as an error. -skeletonName xxx%yyy Use xxx%yyy as the pattern for naming the skeleton. The defaults are · %POA for the POA base class ( -fserver or -fall) · %ImplBase for the oldImplBase class ( -oldImplBase and ( -fserver or -fall)) -td dir Use dir for the output directory instead of the current directory. -tieName xxx%yyy Name the tie according to the pattern. The defaults are: · %POATie for the POA tie base class ( -fserverTie or -fallTie) · %_Tie for the oldImplBase tie class ( -oldImplBase and ( -fserverTie or -fallTie)) -nowarn,-verbose Verbose mode. -version Display version information and terminate. See the Description section for more option information. Restrictions · Escaped identifiers in the global scope may not have the same spelling as IDL primitive types, Object, or Value Base. This is because the symbol table is pre-loaded with these identifiers; allowing them to be redefined would overwrite their original definitions. (Possible permanent restriction). · The fixed IDL type is not supported. Known Problems None at this time. 10 March 2001 idlj(1)