Object Management Group Publishes the REST for CORBA Specification Version 1.0 Beta

By Tiera Oliver

Associate Editor

Embedded Computing Design

July 05, 2021

News

Object Management Group Publishes the REST for CORBA Specification Version 1.0 Beta

The new spec defines a standard and interoperable mechanism that enables CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture) objects to be exposed as REST (REpresentational State Transfer) architecture services.

From a technical perspective, it defines standard Interface Definition Language (IDL) annotations to decorate IDL constructs to expose the corresponding CORBA objects as REST services that REST client applications can consume.

"This new spec will enable pure REST clients to use CORBA services through the exposed REST façade transparently," said Matteo Vescovi, Technical Architect at Micro Focus, which submitted the application.  "These IDL annotations, known as IDL-RS, strive to comply with the REST architectural style. The design assumes that HTTP is the underlying network transport layer protocol, so we aim to provide a clear mapping between HTTP resources and the corresponding CORBA objects."

The spec also defines Data Representation Formats to externalize objects defined with the IDL Type Representation format to JSON and XML Data Representation formats.  A Data Representation Format defines how objects of the types defined by the IDL Type System may be externalized. This way, they can be stored in a file or communicated over a network (commonly referred to as "data serialization" or "data marshaling").

JSON and XML Data Representation Formats are typically used in REST applications and provide an alternative to the encoding mechanism to the standard Common Data Representation (CDR) format used in CORBA applications.

The CORBA standard is designed to facilitate the communication of systems that are deployed on diverse platforms. CORBA enables collaboration between systems on different operating systems, programming languages, and computing hardware. The most current version of the REST for CORBA specification is posted here.

OMG specifications address middleware, modeling, and vertical domain frameworks.

All OMG specifications are available on the OMG website.

Tiera Oliver, Associate Editor for Embedded Computing Design, is responsible for web content edits, product news, and constructing stories. She also assists with newsletter updates as well as contributing and editing content for ECD podcasts and the ECD YouTube channel. Before working at ECD, Tiera graduated from Northern Arizona University where she received her B.S. in journalism and political science and worked as a news reporter for the university’s student led newspaper, The Lumberjack.

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