The SOM Interface Repository (IR) is a database that the SOM Compiler optionally creates and maintains from the information supplied in IDL source files. The Interface Repository contains persistent objects that correspond to the major elements in IDL descriptions. The SOM Interface Repository Framework is a set of classes that provide methods whereby executing programs can access these objects to discover everything known about the programming interfaces of SOM classes.
The programming interfaces used to interact with Interface Repository objects, as well as the format and contents of the information they return, are architected and defined as part of the Object Management Group's CORBA standard. The classes composing the SOM Interface Repository Framework implement the programming interface to the CORBA Interface Repository. Accordingly, the SOM Interface Repository Framework supports all of the interfaces described in The Common Object Request Broker: Architecture and Specification (OMG Document Number 91.12.1, Revision 1.1, chapter 7).
As an extension to the CORBA standard, the SOM Interface Repository Framework permits storage in the Interface Repository of arbitrary information in the form of SOM IDL modifiers. That is, within the SOM-unique implementation section of an IDL source file or through the use of the #pragma modifier statement, user-defined modifiers can be associated with any element of an IDL specification. (See the section entitled "SOM Interface Definition Language" in Chapter 4, "SOM IDL and the SOM Compiler.") When the SOM Compile creates the Interface Repository from an IDL specification, these potentially arbitrary modifiers are stored in the IR and can then be accessed via the methods provided by the Interface Repository Framework.
This chapter describes, first, how to build and manage interface repositories, and second, the programming interfaces embodied in the SOM Interface Repository Framework.