Writing a Native Provider

Providers get and set information on managed devices. A native provider is a machine-specific program written to run on a managed device. For example, a provider that accesses data on a Solaris system will most likely include C functions to query the Solaris system. Two common reasons for writing a native provider are:

• Efficiency – You may want to implement a small portion of time-critical code in a lower-level programming language, such as assembly, and then have your Java application call these functions.

• Need to access platform-specific features – The standard Java class library may not support the platform-dependent features needed by your application.

• Legacy code - Often, you have legacy code written in some programming language other than Java and want to continue to use the code with a Java provider.

The Java Native Interface is the native programming interface for Java that is part of the JDK. By writing programs using the JNI, you ensure that your code is completely portable across all platforms. The JNI allows Java code that runs within a Java Virtual Machine (VM) to operate with applications and libraries written in other languages, such as C, C++, and assembly.

For more information on writing and integrating Java programs with native methods, visit the Java web site at http://www.javasoft.com/docs/books/tutorial/native1.1/index.html.