[omniORB] Using `the_servant` in postinvoke() ?

[randy.shoup@tumbleweed.com]

I am trying to figure out the best way to get access to my "real"
implementation object from within the implementation of
ServantLocator::postinvoke().  I have consulted the archives of
comp.object.corba, and several ORB mailing lists without success.  I
can't consult H&V because I have it at work :-).

My implementation object is declared as a subclass of
RefCountServantBase, e.g.:

	class MyImpl : public RefCountServantBase, ...

preinvoke() looks like:

	PortableServer::Servant preinvoke( ... ) {
		// get my servant out of a pool
		MyImpl * servant = ...;

		// initialize the servant with some operation-specific information
		servant->initialize(...);

		return servant;
	}

I want to be able to invoke a cleanup method of MyImpl inside
postinvoke(), so I want to do something like:

	void postinvoke( ... , PortableServer::Servant the_servant) {
		// cast to MyImpl*
		MyImpl* servant = (MyImpl *)the_servant;

		// clean up
		servant->cleanup(...);
	}
	
The cast to MyImpl* does not compile because MyImpl derives from
RefCountServantBase, which inherits *virtually* from ServantBase.  Hmmm
...
	
There are of course alternate ways of getting access to MyImpl, like
	1. adding it to the cookie in preinvoke()
	2. retaining a map from oid -> MyImpl*
	etc.

But these options seem pretty heavyweight when I have the object right
there :-).  After further reflection, it seems to me that the inability
to cast here makes `the_servant` pretty much useless in postinvoke(). 
Sure, you can call _remove_ref() on it, but that is about it.

What am I missing?

Thanks,
-- Randy
_________________________________________________________________  
Randy Shoup                                     (650)216-2038  
Senior Architect                                rshoup@tumbleweed.com  
Tumbleweed Communications Corporation