Towards a dynamic CORBA component platform

Distributed object computing (DOC) middleware, even if commonly used, has several drawbacks in supporting large and complex distributed applications: no visibility of distributed object interconnections, no implementation separation between business logic and system services, and no application deployment process. In response to this, DOC middleware is evolving to distributed component computing (DCC) middleware such as the Enterprise Java Beans and the CORBA Component Model (CCM). Such middleware provides new solutions to exhibit component interconnections, to separate functional and non-functional aspects, and to deploy components. However, this new middleware generation does not allow applications to have fine-grain control of their deployment process, i.e. the deployment process is hard-coded into DCC middleware and applications cannot adapt it to their requirements. In the context of the CCM, this paper promotes a flexible deployment process supported by a dynamic CORBA Component platform. This platform is composed of an OMG IDL compiler, generic container servers, and our CorbaScript engine (basis and first implementation of the OMG IDLscript specification). It allows software architects to dynamically drive the deployment of their distributed components, as well as to be reactive to their evolutions.