Schema for Representing CORBA Object References in an LDAP Directory
RFC 2714

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Network Working Group                                            V. Ryan
Request for Comments: 2714                                        R. Lee
Category: Informational                                      S. Seligman
                                                  Sun Microsystems, Inc.
                                                            October 1999

  Schema for Representing CORBA Object References in an LDAP Directory

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  It does
   not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of this
   memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   CORBA [CORBA] is the Common Object Request Broker Architecture
   defined by the Object Management Group. This document defines the
   schema for representing CORBA object references in an LDAP directory
   [LDAPv3].

1. Introduction

   This document assumes that the reader has a general understanding of
   CORBA.

   Traditionally, LDAP directories have been used to store data. Users
   and programmers think of the directory as a hierarchy of directory
   entries, each containing a set of attributes.  You look up an entry
   from the directory and extract the attribute(s) of interest.  For
   example, you can look up a person's telephone number from the
   directory.  Alternatively, you can search the directory for entries
   with a particular set of attributes.  For example, you can search for
   all persons in the directory with the surname "Smith".

   CORBA applications require access to CORBA objects. Traditionally,
   CORBA applications have used the COS Naming service for storage and
   retrieval of CORBA object references. When deployed in environments
   with a directory, CORBA applications should be able to use the
   directory as a repository for CORBA object references. The directory
   provides a centrally administered, and possibly replicated, service
   for use by CORBA applications distributed across the network.

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RFC 2714           Schema for CORBA Object References       October 1999

   For example, an application server may use the directory for
   "registering" CORBA objects representing the services that it
   manages, so that a client can later search the directory to locate
   those services as it needs.

   The motivation for this document is to define a common way for
   applications to store and retrieve CORBA object references from the
   directory.  Using this common schema, any CORBA application that
   needs to read or store CORBA object references in the directory can
   do so in an interoperable way.

   Note that this schema is defined for storing CORBA "object
   references," not CORBA objects in general. There might be other ways
   to store CORBA objects in an LDAP directory but they are not covered
   by this schema.

2. Representation of CORBA Object References

   This document defines schema elements to represent a CORBA object
   reference in LDAP directory. Applications in possession of a
   reference to an object can invoke calls on that object.  Such a
   reference is termed an "interoperable object reference," or IOR.
   Access to CORBA objects by using IORs is achieved transparently to
   the application, by means of the General Inter-ORB Protocol.

   A CORBA object reference is represented in the directory by the
   object class corbaObjectReference. corbaObjectReference is a subclass
   of the abstract corbaObject object class. corbaObjectReference is an
   auxiliary object class, which means that it needs to be mixed in with
   a structural object class.

   The object class corbaContainer is used in a directory entry which
   represents a CORBA object or object reference. It is a structural
   object class, and when representing an object reference, the
   corbaObjectReference object class would also need to be present in
   the entry.  corbaContainer is not required when a subclass of
   corbaObject (such as corbaObjectReference) is mixed in with another
   structural object class.

   The definitions for the object classes corbaObject,
   corbaObjectReference, and corbaContainer are presented in Section 4.

   The corbaObject class has two optional attributes: corbaRepositoryId
   and description.  corbaRepositoryId is a multivalued attribute that
   is used to store the repository ids of the interfaces implemented by
   a CORBA object.  description is used to store a textual description
   of a CORBA object.

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RFC 2714           Schema for CORBA Object References       October 1999

   The corbaObjectReference class has one mandatory attribute: corbaIor.
   corbaIor is used to store the object's stringified IOR.

   corbaIor and corbaRepositoryId are defined in Section 3; description