A model for Java/CORBA and OODBMS distributed architectures

Abstract

The Java/CORBA paradigm extends Java distributively and allows one to specify and implement multiplatform distributed object architectures. Such multi-client/server architectures, extended with object database management systems (OODBMS) as the principal persistent service, will become object based architectures (or OAs). The analysis and the use of dedicated techniques is required to specify and implement OAs, forcing us to challenge the current design and development approaches. We introduce a model for such an architecture that is based on a semantic distinction between "functional" objects and "data" objects. Functional objects (FOs) are Java/CORBA (client) server distributed objects with well defined (standard) IDL interfaces, data objects (DOs) are FOs "arguments/results" objects persistently stored in the OODBMS. The model relies on constructing a DO-graph, that is used for simple "dataflow" centralized calling mechanism for FOs, and that is induced by correct typed composition of FOs. An example of concrete realization of such a model is the implementation of the Text Retrieval and Enrichment for Vital Information (TREVI) distributed system for the analysis and categorization of natural language English texts (ESPRIT Project EP23311).