[omniORB] Pliiiz help me with my callback-problem

[charlotte1@pedersen.ms]

Hi  (I'm in desperate need......),
I'm a student currently working on my diploma-thesis. The task involve using 
omniorb in a client/server system that needs to run several asynchronous 
callbacks. The client is written in c++ and the server uses Sun's Java ORB. 
The idl-interfaces below is used by the system.


    interface ExperimentRmiInterfaceWrapper {
        
        string getExperimentId();
        *** plus more methods ***   
    };


    interface CyberlabRmiInterfaceWrapper {
        
        string getExperimentId();
        *** plus more methods ***   
    };


    interface CyberlabRmiDispatcherInterfaceWrapper {
    
        CyberlabRmiInterfaceWrapper connect(
            in ExperimentRmiInterfaceWrapper arg0,
            in string arg1 );
    
    };


The algorithm is as follows:

**The client retrieves a <CyberlabRmiDispatcherInterfaceWrapper> object from 
nameserv.

**The client-object runs the connect(..) method on the server-reference, where 
one of the in-parameters are a reference to a <ExperimentRmiInterfaceWrapper> 
callback object.
This object are created like this:
    
    // Register a CallBack object in this process.
    cb_i* mycallback = new cb_i();
    cb::CallBack_var callback = mycallback->_this();  // *implicit activation*
    mycallback->_remove_ref();

**The server recieves the call and invokes getExperimentId() on the callback 
object. This call runs nice and the experiment-id is recieved on the server-
side. The server then dispatches a <CyberlabRmiInterfaceWrapper> object back to 
the client.

**The client tests a method on the new remote-refernce -> Works nice:) 

**The client object is alive and waits for calls to be run/recieved..
 
**NOW the problem occurs when the server suddenly again invokes getExperimentId
() on the callback-reference. The method is triggered on the client, but the 
return string appears in a cryptic manner when recieved on the server?????  

CAN ANYONE PLIIIIZ TELL ME WHY THIS HAPPEN....

>>>> Problem: the callback-reference has a problem returning a value after the 
connect(..) method has returned.

In the callback-example with the distribution, the callbacks are only performed 
when inside of an call initiated by the client. But then THIS ISN'T REALLY 
ASYNCHRONOUS CALLBACKS, AND THEN THE WHOLE POINT WITH CALLBACKS ARE LOST..

What have I not understood with callbacks/omniorb???

**P.S I've made a java-client and this problem doesn't occur here...
**P.S2 It is not an acceptable solution to change the callback-methods to only 
notify the client that it has tpo send this exper-id with another call because 
the same idl is used by so many different client-implementations (rmi-iiop, 
etc..)
**P.S3 Can I let one register method run all through the life-time of the 
client (infinite...) since the callback methods then return, without letting 
the processor suffer to much???


I WOULD BE ENORMOUSLY PLEASED IF ANYONE COULD GIVE ME AT LEAST SOME INFORMATION 
ON THIS ISSUE :-)

Sincerely,

Charlotte Pedersen, Norwegian University of Science and Technology