Banking on CORBA
This is a simple implementation of a banking application. The
architecture of the bank has three components:
- A database that provides persistent storage for the accounts managed by the bank.
- A CORBA server that represents the bank and provides an object-oriented interface to its accounts.
- A CORBA client that provides a graphical user interface to the bank.
This application is a typical example of a three-tier application
architecture comprising a database access layer, a business logic
layer, and a user interface layer.
The client program is composed of the following parts:
- library.dylan
- Dylan library definition for client
- module.dylan
- Dylan module definition for client
- bank-client.dylan
- Dylan client GUI
- init-client.dylan
- Dylan client initialization
- idl.spec
- client configuration file for Bank IDL
- naming.spec
- client configuration file for Naming Service IDL
- README.htm
- this file
The server program is similarly composed of the following parts:
- library.dylan
- Dylan library definition for server
- module.dylan
- Dylan module definition for server
- bank-server.dylan
- Dylan server implementation
- server-frame.dylan
- Dylan server GUI
- init-server.dylan
- Dylan server initialization
- idl.spec
- server configuration file for Bank IDL
- naming.spec
- server configuration file for Naming Service IDL
- README.htm
- this file
See the bank chapters of the CORBA documentation for a
more information on this demonstration and its features.
Also see the separate README
for the Java version of the Bank client.
ODBC requirements
In order to run the example, you need to have ODBC version 3.0 (or
higher) and an ODBC driver for Microsoft Access installed on the
machine hosting the server application. You do not need a copy of
Microsoft Access.
Both ODBC 3.x and the Microsoft Access driver are available free
for download from the Microsoft Universal Data Access
web site.
From the Downloads section, download the Microsoft Data Access
Components, version 1.5c or higher, for your Windows platform. You do
not need to download the full 6.4MB file -- mdacfull.exe, the MDAC
1.5c redistribution setup file, is only 3.4MB and contains everything
you need.
This file installs ODBC 3.x and the Microsoft Access Driver,
amongst other things.
This information may change in the future.
Building and Testing the Application
Just press the "Build" buttons on the respective Project Windows.
Now, you can run the application to test that it works. You need to
run the server first so that it is waiting ready to receiver calls
from the client.
- Select "Project->Start" or press the "Start/Resume" button in the
tool bar on the Project Window for the "bank-server" project.
- Wait until the GUI appears. The server is now running.
- Do the same for the client project. It should also start a GUI.
- In the client, create an account by select "Open New Account..." from the "Bank" menu.
- Now you can credit some money to it by selecting "Credit Account..." from the "Account" menu (in the client).
- Close the client GUI and restart it.
- In the client, retrieve the account you created using "Retrieve Account..." from the "Bank" menu.
- In the server, select "active log" in the server GUI to monitor requests from the client.
You can set breakpoints in the client and server code to trap the
request and open debugger windows as it passes from client to server,
or you can experiment and extend the code, e.g. by reducing the number
of CORBA requests needed to redisplay the client's table of accounts
(e.g. by caching the details in the client, or by sending the details
in a structure instead of as separate values).