Visibroker Instructions

Downloading and Installing Visibroker

Borland has a nice CORBA product called Visibroker for which they offer a 60-day free evaluation license. This is the ORB I will be using for class examples in C++, so I recommend that you use it as well. To download your evaluation copy of Visibroker, go to http://www.borland.com/visibroker/download/ and select "Visibroker 4.x for C++". You must register to get a userid and a key - please be sure to do this so that everyone in the class has their own legitimate license.

Different versions are available for different platforms, and you must specify which operating system and compiler you are going to use:

• If you already have Microsoft Visual C++, simply select the version of Visibroker which runs with VC++. Version 5 of VC++ (which has been out for a while now) is adequate - you do not need to upgrade to version 6.

• If you do not have VC++ installed on the machine you will be using, and you do not care to buy a copy, then one alternative is to one of Borland's C++ compilers. It appears that the freebie C++ compiler at http://www.borland.com/bcppbuilder/freecompiler/, while very nice in general, does not include everything needed to run CORBA. Instead, you can try the trial version of their Enterprise compiler (174 Mb download), which is supposed to included the necessary DLL(s). We're still testing to make sure this works.

• If you prefer penguins, a version is also available for Red Hat Linux 7.0.

Once you have downloaded the file, the actual installation follows the usual Windows/InstallShield pattern. If you don't already have a recent version of Sun's jdk (1.3 or later), the Visibroker installation program will tell you what you need to download and install. (If you need the jdk, that is also available for free, but you need to get it from Sun's website rather than Borland's.)

Building and Running a Sample Program

• If you have not yet rebooted since installing Visibroker, do so now. Then check to make sure your path includes Inprise/vbroker/bin. If it does not, add it manually and repeat this step.
  • Under Windows-98, edit C:\autoexec.bat, and add a line like:

    	PATH="%PATH%;C:\Inprise\vbroker\bin"
    

  • Under Windows-NT, go to Start / ControlPanel / Settings / System / Environment and add C:\Inprise\vbroker\bin to the PATH under System.
• Create a working directory. (This will allow to you to experiment without damaging the original directory, so you can start over from scratch if anything goes wrong.)
• Copy all the files from Inprise/vbroker/examples/basic/bank_agent to the working directory.
• Copy "stdmk_nt" from Inprise/vbroker/examples to the working directory.
• Edit the first line of Makefile.cpp to remove the ../../ in front of stdmk_nt.
• Create a new file in your working directory called "build.bat" and copy the following text into it:

  	set VBROKERDIR=C:\Inprise\vbroker
  	set PATH="%PATH%;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VC98\bin"
  	call Vcvars32.bat
  	nmake -f Makefile.cpp all
  

• If necessary, edit the settings for VBROKERDIR and PATH to reflect the proper directories on your machine.
• Open a DOS command prompt window.
• "cd" to your working directory.
• Run "osagent". (This command will return immediately, but a new icon will appear in your tool bar.)
• Run "build.bat". (You will see the source files being compiled and linked.)
• Run "server.exe". (You will get a message that ends "is ready".)
• Open another DOS command prompt window.
• cd to your working directory.
• Run "client.exe". (It should report a 41 cent balance).