Method and apparatus for allowing generic stubs to marshal and unmarshal data in object reference specific data formats

A method of operating a computer system having a processor, a memory, a display, an input/output mechanism, an operating system and at least one client application program, one or more stub programs related to the client application, the method performed by the computer comprising the steps of:

• invoking a call on a program implementation code mechanism, the call invocation being made by a client application wherein the call includes a reference to the program implementation code mechanism;
• using a stub program code mechanism which is related to the client application to receive the call invocation, wherein the stub program code mechanism has no knowledge of a format required for marshaling data provided by the client application in connection with the call invocation;
• calling a first specific program code mechanism by the stub program code mechanism, requesting the first specific program code mechanism to provide a MarshalBuffer code mechanism that knows how to format data provided by the client application in connection with the call invocation;
• marshaling the data provided by the client application in connection with the call invocation, the marshaling being done by the stub program code mechanism using the MarshalBuffer code mechanism;
• and
• sending the call invocation to a server containing the program implementation code mechanism which is the target of the call.

A computer program product comprising a computer system usable storage medium having computer readable code embodied therein for causing a computer system to process program code mechanism invocations which are directed to one of a multiplicity of remote Object Request Brokers (ORBs), the computer program product comprising:

• a first computer readable program code mechanism configured to comprise an ORB-independent layer of code mechanisms including client applications and related stub program code mechanisms;
• and
• a second computer readable program code mechanism configured to comprise an ORB dependent layer of code mechanisms, coupled to the ORB independent layer, the ORB dependent layer comprising program code mechanisms which are ORB-specific and which are configured to generate a marshal code mechanism to marshal data in an ORB required format and program code mechanisms configured to use a specific network protocol code whereby a program application code mechanism from the ORB independent layer can invoke a call on a remote implementation program code mechanism and the ORB-specific program code mechanisms in the ORB dependent layer will determine an appropriate marshal code mechanism to marshal data in an ORB required format, thereby providing a computer system capable of communicating with a multiplicity of ORBs wherein each ORB requires data to be in a specific format.

A method for marshaling data into a specific format for use in a computer node which contains client applications and related stubs for communicating with remote computer nodes which contain object implementations, the method for marshaling data, performed by a computer, comprising the steps of:

• providing marshal program code mechanisms associated with a plurality of Object Request Brokers (ORBs) which require distinct data formats, the marshal program code mechanisms being configured to format arguments and data related to an object implementation invocation made by a client application, wherein said invocation and said client application have no knowledge of an Object Request Broker (ORB) which can process said invocation and wherein said invocation and said client application have no knowledge of a data format required by said ORB which can process said invocation;
• selecting a particular marshal program code mechanism from the marshal program code mechanisms based upon a particular invocation;
• and
• using said selected marshal program code mechanism to marshal and unmarshal said arguments and said data.

A computer-implemented method of operating a computer system having a processor, a memory, an operating system, and a client application, the method comprising:

• invoking a call on a target object, the call invocation being made by the client application wherein the call includes a reference to the target object, the target object being associated with a server application, the server application being associated with the computer system;
• using a stub which is related to the client application to receive the call invocation, wherein the stub has no knowledge of a specific format required for marshaling data provided by the client application in connection with the call invocation, the specific format required for marshaling data being associated with the server application;
• calling a specific code mechanism using the stub;
• requesting a MarshalBuffer object from the specific code mechanism, the MarshalBuffer object being arranged to format the data provided by the client application into the specific format in connection with the call invocation;
• marshaling the data provided by the client application in connection with the call invocation, the marshaling being done using the MarshalBuffer object, wherein marshaling the data formats the data in the specific format;
• and
• sending the call invocation to the server application containing the target object.