Question

I’m implementing a CORBA like server. Each class has remotely callable methods and a dispatch method with two possible input, a string identifying the method or an integer which would be the index of the method in a table. A mapping of the string to the corresponding integer would be implemented by a map.

The caller would send the string on the first call and get back the integer with the response so that it simply has to send the integer on subsequent calls. It is just a small optimization. The integer may be assigned dynamically on demand by the server object.
The server class may be derived from another class with overridden virtual methods.

What could be a simple and general way to define the method binding and the dispatch method ?

Edit: The methods have all the same signature (no overloading). The methods have no parameters and return a boolean. They may be static, virtual or not, overriding a base class method or not. The binding must correctly handle method overriding.

The string is class hierarchy bound. If we have A::foo() identified by the string “A.foo”, and a class B inherits A and override the method A::foo(), it will still be identified as “A.foo”, but the dispatcher will call A::foo if the server is an A object and B::foo if it is a B object.

Edit (6 apr): In other words, I need to implement my own virtual method table (vftable) with a dynamic dispatch method using a string key to identify the method to call. The vftable should be shared among objects of the same class and behave as expected for polymorphism (inherited method override).

Edit (28 apr): See my own answer below and the edit at the end.

Answer 1

Here is an example of my actual method. It Just Works (c) but I’m pretty sure a much cleaner and better way exist. It compiles and runs with g++ 4.4.2 as is. Removing the instruction in the constructor would be great, but I couldn’t find a way to achieve this. The Dispatcher class is basically a dispatchable method table and each instance must have a pointer on its table.

Note: This code will implicitly make all dispatched methods virtual.

#include <iostream>
#include <map>
#include <stdexcept>
#include <cassert>

// Forward declaration
class Dispatchable;

//! Abstract base class for method dispatcher class
class DispatcherAbs
{
public:
    //! Dispatch method with given name on object
    virtual void dispatch( Dispatchable *obj, const char *methodName ) = 0;

    virtual ~DispatcherAbs() {}
};

//! Base class of a class with dispatchable methods
class Dispatchable
{
public:
    virtual ~Dispatchable() {}

    //! Dispatch the call
    void dispatch( const char *methodName )
    {
        // Requires a dispatcher singleton assigned in derived class constructor
        assert( m_dispatcher != NULL );
        m_dispatcher->dispatch( this, methodName );
    }

protected:
    DispatcherAbs *m_dispatcher; //!< Pointer on method dispatcher singleton
};

//! Class type specific method dispatcher
template <class T>
class Dispatcher : public DispatcherAbs
{
public:
    //! Define a the dispatchable method type
    typedef void (T::*Method)();

    //! Get dispatcher singleton for class of type T
    static Dispatcher *singleton()
    {
        static Dispatcher<T> vmtbl;
        return &vmtbl;
    }

    //! Add a method binding
    void add( const char* methodName, Method method )
        { m_map[methodName] = method; }

    //! Dispatch method with given name on object
    void dispatch( Dispatchable *obj, const char *methodName )
    {
        T* tObj = dynamic_cast<T*>(obj);
        if( tObj == NULL )
            throw std::runtime_error( "Dispatcher: class mismatch" );
        typename MethodMap::const_iterator it = m_map.find( methodName );
        if( it == m_map.end() )
            throw std::runtime_error( "Dispatcher: unmatched method name" );
        // call the bound method
        (tObj->*it->second)();
    }

protected:
    //! Protected constructor for the singleton only
    Dispatcher() { T::initDispatcher( this ); }

    //! Define map of dispatchable method
    typedef std::map<const char *, Method> MethodMap;

    MethodMap m_map; //! Dispatch method map
};


//! Example class with dispatchable methods
class A : public Dispatchable
{
public:
    //! Construct my class and set dispatcher
    A() { m_dispatcher = Dispatcher<A>::singleton(); }

    void method1() { std::cout << "A::method1()" << std::endl; }

    virtual void method2() { std::cout << "A::method2()" << std::endl; }

    virtual void method3() { std::cout << "A::method3()" << std::endl; }

    //! Dispatcher initializer called by singleton initializer
    template <class T>
    static void initDispatcher( Dispatcher<T> *dispatcher )
    {
        dispatcher->add( "method1", &T::method1 );
        dispatcher->add( "method2", &T::method2 );
        dispatcher->add( "method3", &T::method3 );
    }
};

//! Example class with dispatchable methods
class B : public A
{
public:
    //! Construct my class and set dispatcher
    B() { m_dispatcher = Dispatcher<B>::singleton(); }

    void method1() { std::cout << "B::method1()" << std::endl; }

    virtual void method2() { std::cout << "B::method2()" << std::endl; }

    //! Dispatcher initializer called by singleton initializer
    template <class T>
    static void initDispatcher( Dispatcher<T> *dispatcher )
    {
        // call parent dispatcher initializer
        A::initDispatcher( dispatcher );
        dispatcher->add( "method1", &T::method1 );
        dispatcher->add( "method2", &T::method2 );
    }
};

int main( int , char *[] )
{
    A *test1 = new A;
    A *test2 = new B;
    B *test3  = new B;

    test1->dispatch( "method1" );
    test1->dispatch( "method2" );
    test1->dispatch( "method3" );

    std::cout << std::endl;

    test2->dispatch( "method1" );
    test2->dispatch( "method2" );
    test2->dispatch( "method3" );

    std::cout << std::endl;

    test3->dispatch( "method1" );
    test3->dispatch( "method2" );
    test3->dispatch( "method3" );

    return 0;
}

Here is the program output

A::method1()
A::method2()
A::method3()

B::method1()
B::method2()
A::method3()

B::method1()
B::method2()
A::method3()

Edit (28 apr): The answers to this related question was enlightening. Using a virtual method with an internal static variable is preferable to using a member pointer variable that needs to be initialized in the constructor.