2.1 Definition of a CORBA Object

A CORBA object is a virtual entity in the sense that it does not exist on its own, but rather is brought to life when, using the reference to that CORBA object, the client application requests an operation on that object. The reference to the CORBA object is called an object reference. The object reference is the only means by which a CORBA object can be addressed and manipulated in an Oracle Tuxedo system. For more information about object references, see Creating CORBA Server Applications in the Oracle Tuxedo online documentation.

When the client or server application issues a request on an object via an object reference, the Oracle Tuxedo server application instantiates the object specified by the object reference, if the object is not already active in memory. (Note that a request always maps to a specific operation invocation on an object.)

Instantiating an object typically involves the server application initializing the object’s state, which may include having the object’s state read from durable storage, such as a database.

The object contains all the data necessary to do the following:

• Execute the object’s operations.
• Store the object’s state in durable storage when the object is no longer needed.