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Compiling the Example Programs

In a real-world scenario in which a service such as the compute engine is deployed, a developer would likely create a Java Archive (JAR) file that contains the Compute and Task interfaces for server classes to implement and client programs to use. Next, a developer, perhaps the same developer of the interface JAR file, would write an implementation of the Compute interface and deploy that service on a machine available to clients. Developers of client programs can use the Compute and the Task interfaces, contained in the JAR file, and independently develop a task and client program that uses a Compute service.

In this section, you learn how to set up the JAR file, server classes, and client classes. You will see that the client's Pi class will be downloaded to the server at runtime. Also, the Compute and Task interfaces will be downloaded from the server to the registry at runtime.

This example separates the interfaces, remote object implementation, and client code into three packages:

compute – Compute and Task interfaces
engine – ComputeEngine implementation class
client – ComputePi client code and Pi task implementation

First, you need to build the interface JAR file to provide to server and client developers.

Building a JAR File of Interface Classes

First, you need to compile the interface source files in the compute package and then build a JAR file that contains their class files. Assume that user waldo has written these interfaces and placed the source files in the directory c:\home\waldo\src\compute on Windows or the directory /home/waldo/src/compute on Solaris OS or Linux. Given these paths, you can use the following commands to compile the interfaces and create the JAR file:

Microsoft Windows:

cd c:\home\waldo\src
javac compute\Compute.java compute\Task.java
jar cvf compute.jar compute\*.class

Solaris OS or Linux:

cd /home/waldo/src
javac compute/Compute.java compute/Task.java
jar cvf compute.jar compute/*.class

The jar command displays the following output due to the -v option:

added manifest
adding: compute/Compute.class(in = 307) (out= 201)(deflated 34%)
adding: compute/Task.class(in = 217) (out= 149)(deflated 31%)

Now, you can distribute the compute.jar file to developers of server and client applications so that they can make use of the interfaces.

After you build either server-side or client-side classes with the javac compiler, if any of those classes will need to be dynamically downloaded by other Java virtual machines, you must ensure that their class files are placed in a network-accessible location. In this example, for Solaris OS or Linux this location is /home/user/public_html/classes because many web servers allow the accessing of a user's public_html directory through an HTTP URL constructed as http://host/~user/. If your web server does not support this convention, you could use a different location in the web server's hierarchy, or you could use a file URL instead. The file URLs take the form file:/home/user/public_html/classes/ on Solaris OS or Linux and the form file:/c:/home/user/public_html/classes/ on Windows. You may also select another type of URL, as appropriate.

The network accessibility of the class files enables the RMI runtime to download code when needed. Rather than defining its own protocol for code downloading, RMI uses URL protocols supported by the Java platform (for example, HTTP) to download code. Note that using a full, heavyweight web server to serve these class files is unnecessary. For example, a simple HTTP server that provides the functionality needed to make classes available for downloading in RMI through HTTP can be found at Remote Method Invocation Home.

Building the Server Classes

The engine package contains only one server-side implementation class, ComputeEngine, the implementation of the remote interface Compute.

Assume that user ann, the developer of the ComputeEngine class, has placed ComputeEngine.java in the directory c:\home\ann\src\engine on Windows or the directory /home/ann/src/engine on Solaris OS or Linux. She is deploying the class files for clients to download in a subdirectory of her public_html directory, c:\home\ann\public_html\classes on Windows or /home/ann/public_html/classes on Solaris OS or Linux. This location is accessible through some web servers as http://host:port/~ann/classes/.

The ComputeEngine class depends on the Compute and Task interfaces, which are contained in the compute.jar JAR file. Therefore, you need the compute.jar file in your class path when you build the server classes. Assume that the compute.jar file is located in the directory c:\home\ann\public_html\classes on Windows or the directory /home/ann/public_html/classes on Solaris OS or Linux. Given these paths, you can use the following commands to build the server classes:

Microsoft Windows:

cd c:\home\ann\src
javac -cp c:\home\ann\public_html\classes\compute.jar
    engine\ComputeEngine.java

Solaris OS or Linux:

cd /home/ann/src
javac -cp /home/ann/public_html/classes/compute.jar
    engine/ComputeEngine.java

The stub class for ComputeEngine implements the Compute interface, which refers to the Task interface. So, the class definitions for those two interfaces need to be network-accessible for the stub to be received by other Java virtual machines such as the registry's Java virtual machine. The client Java virtual machine will already have these interfaces in its class path, so it does not actually need to download their definitions. The compute.jar file under the public_html directory can serve this purpose.

Now, the compute engine is ready to deploy. You could do that now, or you could wait until after you have built the client.

Building the Client Classes

The client package contains two classes, ComputePi, the main client program, and Pi, the client's implementation of the Task interface.

Assume that user jones, the developer of the client classes, has placed ComputePi.java and Pi.java in the directory c:\home\jones\src\client on Windows or the directory /home/jones/src/client on Solaris OS or Linux. He is deploying the class files for the compute engine to download in a subdirectory of his public_html directory, c:\home\jones\public_html\classes on Windows or /home/jones/public_html/classes on Solaris OS or Linux. This location is accessible through some web servers as http://host:port/~jones/classes/.

The client classes depend on the Compute and Task interfaces, which are contained in the compute.jar JAR file. Therefore, you need the compute.jar file in your class path when you build the client classes. Assume that the compute.jar file is located in the directory c:\home\jones\public_html\classes on Windows or the directory /home/jones/public_html/classes on Solaris OS or Linux. Given these paths, you can use the following commands to build the client classes:

Microsoft Windows:

cd c:\home\jones\src
javac -cp c:\home\jones\public_html\classes\compute.jar
    client\ComputePi.java client\Pi.java
mkdir c:\home\jones\public_html\classes\client
cp client\Pi.class
    c:\home\jones\public_html\classes\client

Solaris OS or Linux:

cd /home/jones/src
javac -cp /home/jones/public_html/classes/compute.jar
    client/ComputePi.java client/Pi.java
mkdir /home/jones/public_html/classes/client
cp client/Pi.class
    /home/jones/public_html/classes/client

Only the Pi class needs to be placed in the directory public_html\classes\client because only the Pi class needs to be available for downloading to the compute engine's Java virtual machine. Now, you can run the server and then the client.