A Stub Compiler for HTTP

Currently we are exploring object wrapping for HTTP. Specifically we are writing a mapping of HTTP to CORBA IDL.

This will allow us to apply our stub compiler technology to build an HTTP server which supports extension methods and WWW clients which can use these extension methods. The aim is to provide a distributed object programming model for WWW similar to that of CORBA, making it easy to encapsulate legacy information services within WWW.

This IDL mapping will also make it very easy to plug an implementation of the HTTP protocol into an ORB, giving CORBA programmers the ability to encapsulate WWW inside CORBA. This kind of encapsulation requires an ORB which supports multiple, parallel protocol stacks. Given such an ORB it will be possible to write CORBA clients which access HTTP servers and also to write CORBA HTTP servers (supporting at least the GET and HEAD methods). Such servers might be accessible via multiple protocols, one of which will be HTTP

In principle it is possible write an IDL description for other application protocols such as FTP. This is slightly less interesting, because unlike HTTP, most of these protocols are not designed to be extensible.

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ANSA home page, Introduction, Comparing CORBA and WWW, Integrating third party information services, A stub Compiler for CGI, A stub Compiler for HTTP, An application scenario, Conclusions, Acknowledgements, References