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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="latin1" ?>
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<!DOCTYPE chapter SYSTEM "chapter.dtd">
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<holder>Ericsson AB, All Rights Reserved</holder>
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The contents of this file are subject to the Erlang Public License,
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Version 1.1, (the "License"); you may not use this file except in
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compliance with the License. You should have received a copy of the
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Erlang Public License along with this software. If not, it can be
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retrieved online at http://www.erlang.org/.
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Software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS"
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basis, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See
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the License for the specific language governing rights and limitations
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The Initial Developer of the Original Code is Ericsson AB.
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<title>OrberWeb</title>
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<prepared>Nick</prepared>
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<date>2001-11-22</date>
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<title>Using OrberWeb</title>
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<p><c>OrberWeb</c> is intended to make things easier when developing and
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testing applications using <c>Orber</c>. The user is able to interact
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with <c>Orber</c> via a GUI by using a web browser.</p>
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<p><c>OrberWeb</c> requires that the application <c>WebTool</c> is available and
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started on at least one node; if so <c>OrberWeb</c> can usually be used to
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to access <c>Orber</c> nodes supporting the Interoperable Naming
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Service. How to start OrberWeb is described in
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<seealso marker="ch_orberweb#startorberweb">Starting OrberWeb</seealso></p>
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<p>The <c>OrberWeb</c> GUI consists of a <em>Menu Frame</em> and a
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<em>Data Frames</em>.</p>
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<title>The Menu Frame</title>
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<p>The menu frame consists of:</p>
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<list type="bulleted">
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<item><em>Node List</em> - which node to access.</item>
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<item><em>Configuration</em> - see how Orber on the current node is configured.</item>
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<item><em>Name Service</em> - browse the NameService and add/remove a Context/Object.</item>
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<item><em>IFR Types</em> - see which types are registered in IFR.</item>
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<item><em>Create Object</em> - create a new object and, possibly, store it in the NameService.</item>
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<marker id="menuframe"></marker>
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<image file="menuframe">
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<icaption>The Menu Frame.</icaption>
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<p>Which nodes we can access is determined by what is returned when invoking <c>[node()|nodes()]</c>.
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If you cannot see a desired node in the list, you have to call <c>net_adm:ping(Node)</c>.
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But this requires that the node is started with the distribution switched on
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(e.g. <c>erl -sname myNode</c>); this also goes for the node <c>OrberWeb</c> is running on.</p>
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<title>The Configuration Data Frame</title>
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<p>When accessing the <em>Configuration</em> page OrberWeb presents a table containing the
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<seealso marker="ch_install#config">configuration settings</seealso> for the target node.</p>
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<marker id="dataframe3"></marker>
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<image file="dataframe3">
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<icaption>Configuration Settings.</icaption>
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<p>It is also possible to change those configuration parameters which can be changed when Orber
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is already started. The Key-Value pairs is given as a list of tuples, e.g.,
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<em>[{orber_debug_level, 5}, {iiop_timeout, 60}, {giop_version, {1,2}}]</em>. If one tries to update a parameter
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which may not be changed an error message will be displayed.</p>
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<title>The IFR Data Frame</title>
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<p>All types registered in the IFR (Interface Repository) which have an associated IFR-id
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can be viewed via the IFR Data Frame. This gives the user an easy way to confirm that
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all necessary IDL-specifications have been properly registered. All available types are
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listed when choosing <c>IFR Types</c> in the menu frame:</p>
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<marker id="dataframe1"></marker>
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<image file="dataframe1">
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<icaption>Select Type.</icaption>
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<p>After selecting a type all definitions of that particular type will be displayed. If no such
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bindings exists the table will be empty.</p>
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<p>Since Orber adds definitions to the IFR when it is installed (e.g. CosNaming), not only
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types defined by the user will show up in the table. In the figure below you find the
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the NameService exceptions listed.</p>
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<marker id="dataframe2"></marker>
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<image file="dataframe2">
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<icaption>List Registered Exceptions.</icaption>
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<title>The NameService Data Frame</title>
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<p>The NameService main purpose is to make possible to bind object references, which
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can client applications can resolve and invoke operations on. Initially, the NameService
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is empty. The most common scenario, is that user applications create Contexts and add objects
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in the NameService. OrberWeb allows the user to do the very same thing.</p>
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<p>When referencing an object or context you must use stringified NameComponents.
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For more information see the <seealso marker="ch_naming_service">Interoperable Naming Service</seealso>.
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In the following example we will use the string <em>org/erlang/TheObjectName</em>, where
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<em>org</em> and <em>erlang</em> will be contexts and <em>TheObjectName</em>
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the name the object will be bound to.</p>
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<p>Since the NameService is empty in the beginning, the only thing we can do is creating
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a new context. Simply write <em>org</em> in the input field and press <c>New Context</c>.
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If OrberWeb was able to create the context or not, is shown in the completion message.
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If successful, just press the <c>Go Back</c> button. Now, a link named <em>org</em> should
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be listed in the table. In the right column the context type is displayed. Contexts are
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associated with <em>ncontext</em> and objects with <em>nobject</em>.</p>
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<marker id="dataframe5"></marker>
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<image file="dataframe5">
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<icaption>Add a New Context.</icaption>
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<p>To create the next level context (i.e. erlang), simply follow the link and repeat the procedure.
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If done correctly, a table containing the same data as the following figure should be the result
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if you follow the <em>erlang</em> link. Note, that the path is displayed in the yellow
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<p>If a context does not contain any sub-contexts or object bindings, it is possible to
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delete the context. If these requirements are met, a <c>Delete Context</c> button will appear.
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A completion status message will be displayed after deleting the context.</p>
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<marker id="dataframe6"></marker>
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<image file="dataframe6">
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<icaption>Delete Context.</icaption>
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<p>Now it is possible to bind an object using the complete name string. To find out how this is
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done using OrberWeb see <seealso marker="ch_orberweb#create">Object Creation</seealso>.
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For now, we will just assume that an object have been created and bound as <em>TheObjectName</em>. </p>
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<marker id="dataframe7"></marker>
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<image file="dataframe7">
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<icaption>Object Stored in the NameService.</icaption>
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<p>If you follow the <em>TheObjectName</em> link, data about the bound object will be
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presented. Note, depending on which type of object it is, the information given differs.
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It would, for example, not be possible to display a Pid for all types of objects since
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it might reside on a Java-ORB. In the figure below a CosNotification FilterFactory have
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been bound under the name <em>org/erlang/TheObjectName</em>.</p>
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<marker id="dataframe8"></marker>
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<image file="dataframe8">
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<icaption>Object Data.</icaption>
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<p>OrberWeb also makes it possible to remove a binding and dispose the associated object.
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Pressing <em>Unbind</em> the binding will be removed but the object will still exist.
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But, if the <em>Unbind and Dispose</em> button is pressed, the binding will be removed
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and the object terminated.</p>
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<title>The Object Creation Data Frame</title>
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<marker id="create"></marker>
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<p>This part makes it possible to create a new object and, if wanted, store it the
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<marker id="dataframe4"></marker>
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<image file="dataframe4">
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<icaption>Create a New Object.</icaption>
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<list type="bulleted">
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<item><em>Module</em> - simply type the name of the module of the object type
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you want to create. If the module begins with a capital letter, we normally must
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write <c>'Module_Interface'</c>. But, when using OrberWeb, you shall <em>NOT</em>.
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Since we cannot create linked objects this is not an option.</item>
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<item><em>Arguments</em> - the supplied arguments must be written as a single Erlang term.
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That is, as a list or tuple containing other Erlang terms. The arguments will be
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passed to the <c>init</c> function of the object. It is, however, not possible
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to use Erlang records. If OrberWeb is not able to parse the arguments, an error message
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will be displayed. If left empty, an empty list will be passed.</item>
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<item><em>Options</em> - the options can be the ones listed under
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<seealso marker="Module_Interface">Module_Interface</seealso> in Orber's Reference manual.
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Hence, they are not further described here. But, as an example, in the figure above
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we started the object as globally registered. If no options supplied the object
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will be started as default.</item>
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<item><em>Name String</em> - if left empty the object will <em>not</em> be registered in the
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NameService. Hence, it is important that you can access the object in another way,
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otherwise a zombie process is created. In the previous section we used the name string
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<em>org/erlang/TheObjectName</em>. If we choose the same name here, the listed contexts
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(i.e. <em>org</em> and <em>erlang</em>) must be created <em>before</em> we can create
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and bind the object to <em>TheObjectName</em>. If this requirement is not met, OrberWeb
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cannot bind the object. Hence, the object will be terminated and an error message
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<item><em>Operation to use</em> - which option choosed will determine the behavior of OrberWeb.
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If you choose <em>bind</em> and a binding already exists an error message will be
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displayed and the newly started object terminated. But if you choose <em>rebind</em>
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any existing binding will over-written.</item>
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<title>Starting OrberWeb</title>
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<marker id="startorberweb"></marker>
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<p>You may choose to start OrberWeb on node, on which Orber is running or not. But
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the Erlang distribution must be started (e.g. by using -sname aNodeName). Now, all
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you have to do is to invoke:</p>
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erl> webtool:start().
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WebTool is availible at http://localhost:8888/
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Or http://127.0.0.1:8888/
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<p>Type one of the URL:s in your web-browser. If you want to access the WebTool application
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from different machine, just replace <c>localhost</c> with its name. For more information,
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see the WebTool documentation.</p>
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lib/orber/doc/src/ch_orberweb.xml
