CORBA - object reference valid?

[Dan Murphy]

Hi,

I'm writing a Java CORBA client, which uses the Visibroker ORB. I'm using the following code to check if a remote object reference is still valid:

    
        try {
            if (remoteRef._non_existent()) { 
                doSessionRefresh();
            }
        } catch (RuntimeException rex) {
 
            //
            // The _non_existent() calls above may have been throwing NullPointerExceptions
            // This handler should ensure that if anything unexpected happens, we'll forcibly
            // refresh the session
            //
            LOG.error("Error checking session validity. Session will be forcibly refreshed", rex);
            doSessionRefresh();
        }

I added the try-catch, because _non_existent() was throwing a NullPointerException. The evidence was provided by the following stack trace I found in my logs:

Caused by: java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.inprise.vbroker.orb.ORB.getThreadLocalObject(Unknown Source)
at com.inprise.vbroker.qos.PolicyHelper.get_client_policy(Unknown Source)
at com.inprise.vbroker.orb.DelegateImpl.get_policy(Unknown Source)
at org.omg.CORBA.portable.ObjectImpl._get_policy(ObjectImpl.java:310)
at com.inprise.vbroker.GIOP.ProtocolConnector.doServiceContext(Unknown Source)
at com.inprise.vbroker.GIOP.ProtocolConnector.doServiceContext(Unknown Source)
at com.inprise.vbroker.IIOP.ProtocolConnector.doServiceContext(Unknown Source)
at com.inprise.vbroker.GIOP.ProtocolConnector.request(Unknown Source)
at com.inprise.vbroker.GIOP.ProtocolConnector.pseudoRequest(Unknown Source)
at com.inprise.vbroker.GIOP.ProtocolConnector.non_existent(Unknown Source)
at com.inprise.vbroker.orb.DelegateImpl.non_existent(Unknown Source)
at org.omg.CORBA.portable.ObjectImpl._non_existent(ObjectImpl.java:137)
at com.acecomm.parentpatrol.surePay.SurePaySession.refreshSessionIfNecessary(SurePaySession.java:335)

Anyway, my question is this.....is there a better way to check whether a remote object reference is still valid? Preferably, one which doesn't throw any runtime exceptions

Thanks in Advance,
DM
[ January 18, 2007: Message edited by: Dan Murphy ]