VSORB2.3 Data Sheet - October 8th, 2001

The Open Brand for CORBA

The Open Brand program is the means by which a vendor guarantees that their product complies with certain requirements, defined by the Product Standard, to the buyer.  In this case the conformance requirements are for a product to implement the OMG's CORBA 2.3 specifications.

The Open Brand program is built around the right to use certain trademarks, with trademark law as its legal basis. Once a product complies with the CORBA specification, and the vendor has entered into a trademark license thereby guaranteeing that conformance, the vendor is entitled to use the trademarks in relation to that product.

Test Suite

Objective

In the CORBA model an application program operates in a distributed environment, composed of client programs and server objects cooperating through the medium of an Object Request Broker (ORB).  The VSOrb test suite tests products that provide this ORB functionality for conformance with the CORBA specification.  VSOrb tests ORBs with C and/or C++ language mappings.

The test suites verify the functionality offered by an ORB to both clients and objects in order to facilitate three important areas of CORBA application portability:

• An ORB allows CORBA-conforming clients to be built and executed
• An ORB allows CORBA-conforming objects to be built and, when accessed by a client, executed
• An ORB will interoperate with other conforming ORBs, allowing clients to transparently access objects in a multi-vendor, multi-ORB environment

All ORBs offer CORBA defined capabilities. However, variations in the implementation of interfaces and services means that applications still need to be ported in order to use the functionality on different ORBs. The test suite VSOrb (for C and C++) ensures correct and consistent interfaces and functionality for CORBA-conformant ORBs. Thus, applications can use the features and services of CORBA without change across all CORBA-conforming products.

The test suites focus on defined APIs and services rather than product implementation. Thus ORB developers retain the flexibility to optimize and differentiate their ORBs for performance, operating environment, marketplace, etc., while at the same time providing a standard interface for applications.

Intended Use

VSOrb is designed for two primary uses:

• to test CORBA compliance by ORB implementers during product development, quality assurance and regression testing
• to underpin the Open Brand for CORBA in which ORB implementations are tested for CORBA conformance and interoperability under formal processes.

Scope

VSOrb tests the following CORBA functional areas, divided into five basic groups:

• language mapping for CORBA APIs is correct
• IDL to compiler accepts IDL syntax and performs correct translations
• requests can be made through translated code
• CORBA APIs operate as specified from the appropriate language, including that requests can be made using the DII and DSI interfaces
• IIOP messages are accepted and generated with correct syntax, semantics and exception handling
• CORBA Coverage
• VSOrb and VSJOrb verify the functionality of version 2.3 of the CORBA specification and covers the following CORBA requirements:

• Interoperability Version 1.0
• IDL Syntax and semantics
• Dynamic Invocation Interface (DII) APIs
• Dynamic Skeleton Interface (DSI) APIs
• Interface Repository APIs
• ORB APIs
• Compiler testing for C, C++, Java (as appropriate)
• C, C++, Java (as appropriate) Language Mapping

• Other areas of CORBA currently outside the scope of either test suite are:

• Interoperability (DCE ESIOP)
• Interworking (CORBA/COM)
• IIOP Version 1.1 fragmentation
• extended data types
• applet-only environments (for Java implementations)

Operational Interface

VSOrb

VSOrb is implemented under the TETware test harness, the multi-platform version of the Test Environment Toolkit, a widely used framework for implementing test suites. TETware provides a common environment for test users and developers and allows tests from different sources to be easily integrated together.

Host Environment

VSOrb is designed to operate on POSIX conformant systems. An ISO C compilation system (header files, compiler and libraries of support functions) is required, and a C++ compilation must also be supplied if the C++ language binding is to be tested.

Network Environment

VSOrb testing is initially performed using a single ORB and a single host system. Interoperability testing includes ORBs on multiple systems across a TCP/IP network.

Interoperability

VSOrb can be used to test ORB interoperability in two ways:

• Passively -- the test suite contains a proxy server that passively monitors IOP messages for correct generation and response
• Actively - the test suite proxy can manipulate IOP messages to cause exceptions and determine if those exceptions are correct.

Value to Developers

A number of test suite features are of particular use in troubleshooting conformance problems during development and in regression testing:

• The ability to invoke tests individually
• The ability to select verbose journal file messages documenting test methods
• Detailed journal file messages documenting the expected and observed behavior for test failures
• Configurable for implementation-specific behavior
• Resilience in the face of implementation problems
• Fully automated execution
• The User\u2019s Guide contains information on troubleshooting common conformance issues and the Programmer\u2019s Guide contains information on the structure and implementation of the test suite to assist programmer\u2019s needing to extend or enhance the test suite - for example to test implementation specific features.

Fees

Brand Fees

Open Brand programs for CORBA are based on annual revenues:

$15,000 per annum - For Organizations less than $25M
$20,000 per annum - For Organizations greater than $25M but less than $100M
$30,000 per annum - For Organizations greater than $100M
Execution of the Open Brand Trademark License Agreement (TMLA) is prerequisite.

Test Suite Fees - Note that fees are per ORB, per Language Binding

$10,000 - One Language Binding (C and C++ or JavaTM), Corporate Source Code License, for one ORB
$10,000 - 12 month Standard Support & Maintenance, for one ORB, for one Language Binding and for one Platform
Execution of The Open Group Test Suite Source Code License Agreement is prerequisite.

The Next Step

For additional information about the Open Brand for CORBA Program and details on how to get involved, please contact our Sales Team.