ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-05)
Methods for Testing and Specification (MTS); The Testing and Test Control Notation version 3; Part 8: The IDL to TTCN-3 Mapping
Methods for Testing and Specification (MTS); The Testing and Test Control Notation version 3; Part 8: The IDL to TTCN-3 Mapping
Revision according to CR Process
Metode za preskušanje in specificiranje (MTS) - 3. različica zapisa preskušanja in krmiljenja preskusov - 8. del: Preslikava IDL v TTCN-3
V tem dokumentu so opredeljena pravila preslikave za CORBA IDL (kot je opredeljeno v točki 3 v [4]) v TTCN-3 (kot je opredeljeno v standardu ETSI ES 201 873-1 [1]) za omogočanje preskušanje sistemov, ki temeljijo na jeziku CORBA. Načela preslikave jezika CORBA IDL v TTCN-3 se lahko uporabijo tudi pri preslikavi jezikov specifikacije vmesnika v druge tehnologije na osnovi objektov/komponent. Specifikacija ostalih preslikav ne spada na področje uporabe tega dokumenta.
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Standards Content (Sample)
ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-05)
ETSI STANDARD
Methods for Testing and Specification (MTS);
The Testing and Test Control Notation version 3;
Part 8: The IDL to TTCN-3 Mapping
---------------------- Page: 1 ----------------------
2 ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-05)
Reference
RES/MTS-201873-8 ed471IDL
Keywords
IDL, testing, TTCN
ETSI
650 Route des Lucioles
F-06921 Sophia Antipolis Cedex - FRANCE
Tel.: +33 4 92 94 42 00 Fax: +33 4 93 65 47 16
Siret N° 348 623 562 00017 - NAF 742 C
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Sous-Préfecture de Grasse (06) N° 7803/88
Important notice
The present document can be downloaded from:
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The present document may be made available in electronic versions and/or in print. The content of any electronic and/or
print versions of the present document shall not be modified without the prior written authorization of ETSI. In case of any
existing or perceived difference in contents between such versions and/or in print, the only prevailing document is the
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Users of the present document should be aware that the document may be subject to revision or change of status.
Information on the current status of this and other ETSI documents is available at
https://portal.etsi.org/TB/ETSIDeliverableStatus.aspx
If you find errors in the present document, please send your comment to one of the following services:
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Copyright Notification
No part may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
and microfilm except as authorized by written permission of ETSI.
The content of the PDF version shall not be modified without the written authorization of ETSI.
The copyright and the foregoing restriction extend to reproduction in all media.
© European Telecommunications Standards Institute 2017.
All rights reserved.
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DECT , PLUGTESTS , UMTS and the ETSI logo are Trade Marks of ETSI registered for the benefit of its Members.
TM
3GPP and LTE™ are Trade Marks of ETSI registered for the benefit of its Members and
of the 3GPP Organizational Partners.
oneM2M logo is protected for the benefit of its Members
GSM® and the GSM logo are Trade Marks registered and owned by the GSM Association.
ETSI
---------------------- Page: 2 ----------------------
3 ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-05)
Contents
Intellectual Property Rights . 5
Foreword . 5
Modal verbs terminology . 5
1 Scope . 6
2 References . 6
2.1 Normative references . 6
2.2 Informative references . 6
3 Abbreviations . 7
4 General considerations . 7
4.1 Introduction . 7
4.2 Approach . 8
4.3 Conformance and compatibility . 8
5 Lexical Conventions . 9
5.0 General . 9
5.1 Comments. 9
5.2 Identifiers . 9
5.3 Keywords . 9
5.4 Literals . 9
6 Pre-processing . 9
7 Importing from IDL specifications . 9
7.0 General . 9
7.1 Importing module declaration . 10
7.2 Importing interface declaration . 10
7.3 Importing value declaration . 11
7.4 Importing constant declaration . 12
8 Importing type declaration . 12
8.0 General . 12
8.1 IDL basic types . 12
8.1.0 General approach . 12
8.1.1 Integer and floating-point types . 13
8.1.2 Char and wide char type . 13
8.1.3 Boolean type . 13
8.1.4 Octet type . 13
8.1.5 Any type . 13
8.2 Constructed types . 14
8.2.0 General approach . 14
8.2.1 Struct . 14
8.2.2 Discriminated unions . 14
8.2.3 Enumerations . 15
8.3 Template types . 15
8.3.0 General approach . 15
8.3.1 Sequence . 16
8.3.2 String and wstring . 16
8.3.3 Fixed types . 16
8.4 Complex declarator . 16
8.4.0 General approach . 16
8.4.1 Arrays . 16
8.4.2 Native types . 17
9 Importing exception declaration . 17
10 Importing operation declaration . 18
ETSI
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4 ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-05)
11 Importing attribute declaration . 20
12 Names and scoping . 20
Annex A (informative): Examples . 22
A.1 The example . 22
A.2 IDL specification . 22
A.3 Derived TTCN-3 specification . 23
Annex B (informative): Mapping lists . 28
B.1 IDL keyword and concept mapping list . 28
B.2 Comparison of IDL, ASN.1, TTCN-2 and TTCN-3 data types . 29
Annex C (informative): Bibliography . 30
History . 31
ETSI
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5 ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-05)
Intellectual Property Rights
IPRs essential or potentially essential to the present document may have been declared to ETSI. The information
pertaining to these essential IPRs, if any, is publicly available for ETSI members and non-members, and can be found
in ETSI SR 000 314: "Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs); Essential, or potentially Essential, IPRs notified to ETSI in
respect of ETSI standards", which is available from the ETSI Secretariat. Latest updates are available on the ETSI Web
server (https://ipr.etsi.org/).
Pursuant to the ETSI IPR Policy, no investigation, including IPR searches, has been carried out by ETSI. No guarantee
can be given as to the existence of other IPRs not referenced in ETSI SR 000 314 (or the updates on the ETSI Web
server) which are, or may be, or may become, essential to the present document.
Foreword
This ETSI Standard (ES) has been produced by ETSI Technical Committee Methods for Testing and Specification
(MTS).
The present document is part 8 of a multi-part deliverable. Full details of the entire series can be found in part 1 [1].
Modal verbs terminology
In the present document "shall", "shall not", "should", "should not", "may", "need not", "will", "will not", "can" and
"cannot" are to be interpreted as described in clause 3.2 of the ETSI Drafting Rules (Verbal forms for the expression of
provisions).
"must" and "must not" are NOT allowed in ETSI deliverables except when used in direct citation.
ETSI
---------------------- Page: 5 ----------------------
6 ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-05)
1 Scope
The present document defines the mapping rules for CORBA IDL (as defined in clause 3 in [4]) to TTCN-3 (as defined
in ETSI ES 201 873-1 [1]) to enable testing of CORBA-based systems. The principles of mapping CORBA IDL to
TTCN-3 can be also used for the mapping of interface specification languages of other object-/component-based
technologies.
The specification of other mappings is outside the scope of the present document.
2 References
2.1 Normative references
References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific. For specific references, only the cited version applies. For non-specific references, the latest version of the
referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
Referenced documents which are not found to be publicly available in the expected location might be found at
http://docbox.etsi.org/Reference.
NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication, ETSI cannot guarantee
their long term validity.
The following referenced documents are necessary for the application of the present document.
[1] ETSI ES 201 873-1: "Methods for Testing and Specification (MTS); The Testing and Test Control
Notation version 3; Part 1: TTCN-3 Core Language".
[2] Recommendation ITU-T T.50: "International Reference Alphabet (IRA) (Formerly International
Alphabet No. 5 or IA5) - Information technology - 7-bit coded character set for information
interchange".
[3] ISO/IEC 10646:2014: "Information technology -- Universal Coded Character Set (UCS)".
®
[4] CORBA 3.0: "The Common Object Request Broker: Architecture and Specification".
NOTE: Available at http://www.omg.org/spec/CORBA/.
2.2 Informative references
References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific. For specific references, only the cited version applies. For non-specific references, the latest version of the
referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication, ETSI cannot guarantee
their long term validity.
The following referenced documents are not necessary for the application of the present document but they assist the
user with regard to a particular subject area.
[i.1] ETSI ES 201 873-7: "Methods for Testing and Specification (MTS); The Testing and Test Control
Notation version 3; Part 7: Using ASN.1 with TTCN-3".
[i.2] Void.
[i.3] Void.
[i.4] Void.
ETSI
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7 ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-05)
[i.5] ETSI ES 202 781: "Methods for Testing and Specification (MTS); The Testing and Test Control
Notation version 3; TTCN-3 Language Extensions: Configuration and Deployment Support".
[i.6] ETSI ES 202 782: "Methods for Testing and Specification (MTS); The Testing and Test Control
Notation version 3; TTCN-3 Language Extensions: TTCN-3 Performance and Real Time Testing".
[i.7] ETSI ES 202 784: "Methods for Testing and Specification (MTS); The Testing and Test Control
Notation version 3; TTCN-3 Language Extensions: Advanced Parameterization".
[i.8] ETSI ES 202 785: "Methods for Testing and Specification (MTS); The Testing and Test Control
Notation version 3; TTCN-3 Language Extensions: Behaviour Types".
[i.9] ETSI ES 202 786: "Methods for Testing and Specification (MTS); The Testing and Test Control
Notation version 3; TTCN-3 Language Extensions: Support of interfaces with continuous signals".
3 Abbreviations
For the purposes of the present document, the following abbreviations apply:
ASN.1 Abstract Syntax Notation One
CCM CORBA Component Model
®
NOTE: By OMG .
CORBA Common Object Request Broker Architecture
®
NOTE: By OMG .
DCE Distributed Computing Environment
NOTE: By OSF.
TM
EJB Enterprise JavaBeans
®
NOTE: By Sun .
IDL Interface Definition Language
NET XML-based component technology
®
NOTE: By Microsoft .
OMG Object Management Group
OSF Open Software Foundation
SUT System Under Test
TTCN Testing and Test Control Notation
XML eXtended Markup Language
4 General considerations
4.1 Introduction
Object-based technologies (such as CORBA, DCOM, DCE) and component-based technologies (such as CCM, EJB,
®
Microsoft .NET) use interface specifications to describe the structure of an object-/component-based system and its
operations and capabilities to interact with the environment. These interface specifications support interoperability and
reusability of objects/components.
The techniques used for interface specifications are often called Interface Definition Language (IDL), for example
®
CORBA IDL, Microsoft IDL or DCE IDL. These languages are comparable in their abilities to define system
interfaces, operations at system interfaces and system structures to various extends. They differ in details of the
object/component model.
ETSI
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8 ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-05)
When considering the testing of object-/component-based systems with TTCN-3, one is faced with the problem of
accessing the systems to be tested via the system interfaces as described in an IDL specification. In particular, for
TTCN-3 based test systems a direct import of IDL specifications into the test specifications for the use of e.g. system's
interface, operation and exception definitions is prevalent to any manual transformation into TTCN-3.
The present document discusses the mapping of CORBA IDL specifications into TTCN-3. This mapping rules out the
principles not only for CORBA IDL, but also for other interface specification languages. The mapping can be adapted
to the details of other interface specification languages.
The Interface Definition Language (IDL) (clause 3 in [4]) is a base of the whole Common Object Request Broker
Architecture (CORBA) [4] and an important point in developing distributed systems with CORBA. It allows the reuse
and interoperability of objects in a system. A mapping between IDL and a programming language is defined in the
CORBA standard. IDL is very similar to C++ containing pre-processor directives (include, comments, etc.), grammar as
well as constant, type and operation declarations. There are no programming language features like, e.g. if-statements.
The core language of TTCN-3 is defined in ETSI ES 201 873-1 [1] and provides a full text-based syntax, static
semantics and operational semantics. The IDL mapping provides a definition for the use of the core language with IDL
(figure 1).
Core language format
TTCN-3
Core
ASN.1 Types
Language
& Values
XSD Graphical
definitions format
TTCN-3 User
Other Types Presentation The shaded boxes are not
& Values format defined in this document
n n
Figure 1: User's view of the core language and the various presentation formats
It makes no difference for the mapping if requested or provided interfaces are required by the test system and SUT.
Hence, TTCN can be used on client and server side without modifications to the mapping rules.
The present document is structured similar to the IDL specification document to provide easy access to the mapping of
each IDL element.
4.2 Approach
Two different approaches can be identified: the use of either implicit or explicit mapping. The implicit mapping makes
use of the import mechanism of TTCN-3, denoted by the keywords language and import. It facilitates the immediate use
of data specified in other languages. Therefore, the definition of a specific data interface for each of these languages is
required. Currently, ASN.1 data can be used besides the native TTCN-3 types (see ETSI ES 201 873-7 [i.1]).
The present document follows the approach of explicit mapping, i.e. IDL data are translated into appropriate TTCN-3
data. And only those TTCN-3 data are further used in the test specification.
4.3 Conformance and compatibility
For an implementation claiming to support the IDL to TTCN-3 mapping, all features specified in the present document
shall be implemented consistently with the requirements given in the present document and in ETSI ES 201 873-1 [1].
ETSI
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9 ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-05)
5 Lexical Conventions
5.0 General
The lexical conventions of IDL define the comments, identifiers, keywords and literals conventions which are described
in the following clauses.
5.1 Comments
Comment definitions in TTCN-3 and IDL are the same and therefore, no conversion of comments is necessary.
5.2 Identifiers
IDL identifier rules define a subset of the TTCN-3 rules in which no conversion is necessary.
5.3 Keywords
When IDL is used with TTCN-3 the keywords of TTCN-3 shall not be used as identifiers in an IDL module.
5.4 Literals
The definition of literals differs slightly between IDL and TTCN-3 why some modifications have to be made. Table B.1
gives the mapping for each literal type.
Table 1: Literal mapping
Literal IDL TTCN
Integer no "0" as first digit no "0" as first digit
Octet "0" as first digit 'FF96'O
Hex "0X" or "0x" as first digits 'AB01D'H
Floating 1222.44E5 (Base 10) 1222.44E5 (Base 10)
Char 'A' "A"
Wide char L"A" "A"
Boolean TRUE, FALSE true, false
String "text" "text"
Wide string L"text" "text"
Fixed point 33.33D (see useful type IDLfixed)
IDL uses the ISO Latin-1 character set for string and wide string literals and TTCN-3 uses Recommendation ITU-T
T.50 [2] for string literals and ISO/IEC 10646 [3] for wide string literals.
6 Pre-processing
Pre-processor statements are not matched to TTCN-3 because the IDL specification shall be used after pre-processing it.
7 Importing from IDL specifications
7.0 General
The import of module, interface, value and constant declaration are described in this clause. The type and exception
declaration as well as the bodies of interfaces are described later.
ETSI
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10 ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-05)
All imported IDL declarations are in TTCN-3 public by default (see clause 8.2.5 of ETSI ES 201 873-1 [1]).
7.1 Importing module declaration
IDL modules are mapped to TTCN-3 modules. Nested IDL modules shall be flattened accordingly to TTCN-3 modules.
As one IDL module can contain many nested IDL modules where several nested modules can have equal names in
different scopes, these names can clash. Hence, module names identifiers are to be used which are composed of the
identifiers of the upper level IDL modules (from hierarchical point of view) and the nested IDL module name, separated
one from each other by two underscores.
According to the IDL scoping rules nested modules have access to the scope of upper level modules. As there are no
nested modules in TTCN-3, TTCN-3 modules have to import upper level modules. For avoiding name clashes, a prefix
for the imported definitions composed of the identifier of the module from which it is imported shall be used. The prefix
and the identifier are separated by a dot (.) as defined in TTCN-3.
IDL EXAMPLE:
module identifier1 {
typedef long mylong1;
module identifier2 {
typedef string mystring2;
typedef mylong1 mylong2;
module identifier3 {
typedef mylong1 long_from_module_1;
typedef mystring2 string_from_module_2;
typedef mylong2 long_from_module_1_2;
};
};
};
TTCN EXAMPLE:
module identifier1 {
type long mylong1;
}
module identifier1__identifier2 {
import from identifier1 all;
type iso8859string mystring2;
type identifier1.mylong1 mylong2;
}
module identifier1__identifier2__identifier3 {
import from identifier1 all;
import from identifier1__identifier2 all;
type identifier1.mylong1 long_from_module_1;
type identifier1__identifier2.mystring2 string_from_module_2;
type identifier1__identifier2.mylong2 long_from_module_1_2;
};
7.2 Importing interface declaration
Interfaces are flattened and all interface definitions are stored in one group. In contrast to interfaces in IDL, groups in
TTCN-3 do not create a scope. Therefore, prefixes for all identifiers of type definitions inside of the interface shall be
used, which are a combination of the interface name and two underscores as the prefix.
Import of single interface definitions from other modules via the importing group statement is possible. This can be
used if inheritance is used in the IDL specification.
For each interface, a procedure-based port type is defined for the test specification. It is associated with signatures
translated from attributes and operations of the interface.
ETSI
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11 ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-05)
An IDL attribute is mapped to two signatures: one for the setting of a value and one for getting it. These signatures have
names composed of the prefix (interface name and two underscores), attribute name and the word "Set" (except for
"readonly") or "Get" correspondingly.
Since an interface can be used in operation parameters to pass object references, an address type is also declared in the
data part - the concrete implementation is left to the user. Components are used as collection of interfaces or objects.
IDL EXAMPLE:
interface identifier {
attribute long attributeId ;
void operationname ( in string param_value ) raises ( ExceptionType ) ;
... other body definitions ...
};
TTCN EXAMPLE:
group identifierInterface {
signature identifier__attributeIdGet () return long
exception ( . /* and all system exceptions defined in clause 9 */ );
signature identifier__attributeIdSet (in long identifier__attributeId)
exception ( . /* and all system exceptions defined in clause 9 */ );
signature identifier__operationname ( in iso8859string identifier__param_value )
exception ( ExceptionType, . /* and all system exceptions defined in clause 9 */ ) ;
.other body definitions .
type port identifier procedure { . }
type charstring identifierObject; /* a possible definition for the address type */
type identifierObject address;
}
Interface inheritance is executed by rolling out all inherited elements. Thus, they have to be handled as defined in the
interface itself. Multiple inheritance elements have to be inherited only once! As normally an inherited IDL interface
uses types defined in the module, usually it is essential to import the complete mapped TTCN-3 module. All inherited
elements have to be rolled out directly in the TTCN-3 group for the interface, even if the inheritance is multiple.
Forward references of interfaces are provided by forward referencing the according port of the interface. Local
interfaces are treated as normal interfaces. However it is recommend not to use forward references and to move a
TTCN-3 definition of the interface (group) to a place where a forward definition is used first time.
7.3 Importing value declaration
In contrast to type interface, the IDL type value has local operations that are not used outside the object, and are
therefore not relevant from the functional testing point of view. However, since the public attributes of value instances
are used to communicate object states, the IDL value type is mapped to the record type in TTCN-3.
The example below shows how to map valuetype and was used from clause 5.2.5 in [4].
IDL EXAMPLE:
valuetype EmployeeRecord {
// note this is not a CORBA::Object
// state definition
private string name;
private string email;
private string SSN;
// initializer
factory init(
in string name, in string SSN );
};
TTCN EXAMPLE:
type record Employ
...
Final draft ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-03)
ETSI STANDARD
Methods for Testing and Specification (MTS);
The Testing and Test Control Notation version 3;
Part 8: The IDL to TTCN-3 Mapping
---------------------- Page: 1 ----------------------
2 Final draft ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-03)
Reference
RES/MTS-201873-8 ed471IDL
Keywords
IDL, testing, TTCN
ETSI
650 Route des Lucioles
F-06921 Sophia Antipolis Cedex - FRANCE
Tel.: +33 4 92 94 42 00 Fax: +33 4 93 65 47 16
Siret N° 348 623 562 00017 - NAF 742 C
Association à but non lucratif enregistrée à la
Sous-Préfecture de Grasse (06) N° 7803/88
Important notice
The present document can be downloaded from:
http://www.etsi.org/standards-search
The present document may be made available in electronic versions and/or in print. The content of any electronic and/or
print versions of the present document shall not be modified without the prior written authorization of ETSI. In case of any
existing or perceived difference in contents between such versions and/or in print, the only prevailing document is the
print of the Portable Document Format (PDF) version kept on a specific network drive within ETSI Secretariat.
Users of the present document should be aware that the document may be subject to revision or change of status.
Information on the current status of this and other ETSI documents is available at
https://portal.etsi.org/TB/ETSIDeliverableStatus.aspx
If you find errors in the present document, please send your comment to one of the following services:
https://portal.etsi.org/People/CommiteeSupportStaff.aspx
Copyright Notification
No part may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
and microfilm except as authorized by written permission of ETSI.
The content of the PDF version shall not be modified without the written authorization of ETSI.
The copyright and the foregoing restriction extend to reproduction in all media.
© European Telecommunications Standards Institute 2017.
All rights reserved.
TM TM TM
DECT , PLUGTESTS , UMTS and the ETSI logo are Trade Marks of ETSI registered for the benefit of its Members.
TM
3GPP and LTE™ are Trade Marks of ETSI registered for the benefit of its Members and
of the 3GPP Organizational Partners.
GSM® and the GSM logo are Trade Marks registered and owned by the GSM Association.
ETSI
---------------------- Page: 2 ----------------------
3 Final draft ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-03)
Contents
Intellectual Property Rights . 5
Foreword . 5
Modal verbs terminology . 5
1 Scope . 6
2 References . 6
2.1 Normative references . 6
2.2 Informative references . 6
3 Abbreviations . 7
4 General considerations . 7
4.1 Introduction . 7
4.2 Approach . 8
4.3 Conformance and compatibility . 8
5 Lexical Conventions . 9
5.0 General . 9
5.1 Comments. 9
5.2 Identifiers . 9
5.3 Keywords . 9
5.4 Literals . 9
6 Pre-processing . 9
7 Importing from IDL specifications . 9
7.0 General . 9
7.1 Importing module declaration . 10
7.2 Importing interface declaration . 10
7.3 Importing value declaration . 11
7.4 Importing constant declaration . 12
8 Importing type declaration . 12
8.0 General . 12
8.1 IDL basic types . 13
8.1.0 General approach . 13
8.1.1 Integer and floating-point types . 13
8.1.2 Char and wide char type . 13
8.1.3 Boolean type . 13
8.1.4 Octet type . 13
8.1.5 Any type . 14
8.2 Constructed types . 14
8.2.0 General approach . 14
8.2.1 Struct . 14
8.2.2 Discriminated unions . 14
8.2.3 Enumerations . 15
8.3 Template types . 16
8.3.0 General approach . 16
8.3.1 Sequence . 16
8.3.2 String and wstring . 16
8.3.3 Fixed types . 16
8.4 Complex declarator . 17
8.4.0 General approach . 17
8.4.1 Arrays . 17
8.4.2 Native types . 17
9 Importing exception declaration . 17
10 Importing operation declaration . 19
ETSI
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4 Final draft ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-03)
11 Importing attribute declaration . 20
12 Names and scoping . 20
Annex A (informative): Examples . 22
A.1 The example . 22
A.2 IDL specification . 22
A.3 Derived TTCN-3 specification . 23
Annex B (informative): Mapping lists . 28
B.1 IDL keyword and concept mapping list . 28
B.2 Comparison of IDL, ASN.1, TTCN-2 and TTCN-3 data types . 29
Annex C (informative): Bibliography . 30
History . 31
ETSI
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5 Final draft ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-03)
Intellectual Property Rights
IPRs essential or potentially essential to the present document may have been declared to ETSI. The information
pertaining to these essential IPRs, if any, is publicly available for ETSI members and non-members, and can be found
in ETSI SR 000 314: "Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs); Essential, or potentially Essential, IPRs notified to ETSI in
respect of ETSI standards", which is available from the ETSI Secretariat. Latest updates are available on the ETSI Web
server (https://ipr.etsi.org/).
Pursuant to the ETSI IPR Policy, no investigation, including IPR searches, has been carried out by ETSI. No guarantee
can be given as to the existence of other IPRs not referenced in ETSI SR 000 314 (or the updates on the ETSI Web
server) which are, or may be, or may become, essential to the present document.
Foreword
This final draft ETSI Standard (ES) has been produced by ETSI Technical Committee Methods for Testing and
Specification (MTS), and is now submitted for the ETSI standards Membership Approval Procedure.
The present document is part 8 of a multi-part deliverable. Full details of the entire series can be found in part 1 [1].
Modal verbs terminology
In the present document "shall", "shall not", "should", "should not", "may", "need not", "will", "will not", "can" and
"cannot" are to be interpreted as described in clause 3.2 of the ETSI Drafting Rules (Verbal forms for the expression of
provisions).
"must" and "must not" are NOT allowed in ETSI deliverables except when used in direct citation.
ETSI
---------------------- Page: 5 ----------------------
6 Final draft ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-03)
1 Scope
The present document defines the mapping rules for CORBA IDL (as defined in clause 3 in [4]) to TTCN-3 (as defined
in ETSI ES 201 873-1 [1]) to enable testing of CORBA-based systems. The principles of mapping CORBA IDL to
TTCN-3 can be also used for the mapping of interface specification languages of other object-/component-based
technologies.
The specification of other mappings is outside the scope of the present document.
2 References
2.1 Normative references
References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific. For specific references, only the cited version applies. For non-specific references, the latest version of the
referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
Referenced documents which are not found to be publicly available in the expected location might be found at
http://docbox.etsi.org/Reference.
NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication, ETSI cannot guarantee
their long term validity.
The following referenced documents are necessary for the application of the present document.
[1] ETSI ES 201 873-1: "Methods for Testing and Specification (MTS); The Testing and Test Control
Notation version 3; Part 1: TTCN-3 Core Language".
[2] Recommendation ITU-T T.50: "International Reference Alphabet (IRA) (Formerly International
Alphabet No. 5 or IA5) - Information technology - 7-bit coded character set for information
interchange".
[3] ISO/IEC 10646:2014: "Information technology -- Universal Coded Character Set (UCS)".
®
[4] CORBA 3.0: "The Common Object Request Broker: Architecture and Specification".
NOTE: Available at http://www.omg.org/spec/CORBA/.
2.2 Informative references
References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific. For specific references, only the cited version applies. For non-specific references, the latest version of the
referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication, ETSI cannot guarantee
their long term validity.
The following referenced documents are not necessary for the application of the present document but they assist the
user with regard to a particular subject area.
[i.1] ETSI ES 201 873-7: "Methods for Testing and Specification (MTS); The Testing and Test Control
Notation version 3; Part 7: Using ASN.1 with TTCN-3".
[i.2] Void.
[i.3] Void.
[i.4] Void.
ETSI
---------------------- Page: 6 ----------------------
7 Final draft ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-03)
[i.5] ETSI ES 202 781: "Methods for Testing and Specification (MTS); The Testing and Test Control
Notation version 3; TTCN-3 Language Extensions: Configuration and Deployment Support".
[i.6] ETSI ES 202 782: "Methods for Testing and Specification (MTS); The Testing and Test Control
Notation version 3; TTCN-3 Language Extensions: TTCN-3 Performance and Real Time Testing".
[i.7] ETSI ES 202 784: "Methods for Testing and Specification (MTS); The Testing and Test Control
Notation version 3; TTCN-3 Language Extensions: Advanced Parameterization".
[i.8] ETSI ES 202 785: "Methods for Testing and Specification (MTS); The Testing and Test Control
Notation version 3; TTCN-3 Language Extensions: Behaviour Types".
[i.9] ETSI ES 202 786: "Methods for Testing and Specification (MTS); The Testing and Test Control
Notation version 3; TTCN-3 Language Extensions: Support of interfaces with continuous signals".
3 Abbreviations
For the purposes of the present document, the following abbreviations apply:
ASN.1 Abstract Syntax Notation One
CCM CORBA Component Model
®
NOTE: By OMG .
CORBA Common Object Request Broker Architecture
®
NOTE: By OMG .
DCE Distributed Computing Environment
NOTE: By OSF.
TM
EJB Enterprise JavaBeans
®
NOTE: By Sun .
IDL Interface Definition Language
NET XML-based component technology
®
NOTE: By Microsoft .
OMG Object Management Group
OSF Open Software Foundation
SUT System Under Test
TTCN Testing and Test Control Notation
XML eXtended Markup Language
4 General considerations
4.1 Introduction
Object-based technologies (such as CORBA, DCOM, DCE) and component-based technologies (such as CCM, EJB,
®
Microsoft .NET) use interface specifications to describe the structure of an object-/component-based system and its
operations and capabilities to interact with the environment. These interface specifications support interoperability and
reusability of objects/components.
The techniques used for interface specifications are often called Interface Definition Language (IDL), for example
®
CORBA IDL, Microsoft IDL or DCE IDL. These languages are comparable in their abilities to define system
interfaces, operations at system interfaces and system structures to various extends. They differ in details of the
object/component model.
ETSI
---------------------- Page: 7 ----------------------
8 Final draft ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-03)
When considering the testing of object-/component-based systems with TTCN-3, one is faced with the problem of
accessing the systems to be tested via the system interfaces as described in an IDL specification. In particular, for
TTCN-3 based test systems a direct import of IDL specifications into the test specifications for the use of e.g. system's
interface, operation and exception definitions is prevalent to any manual transformation into TTCN-3.
The present document discusses the mapping of CORBA IDL specifications into TTCN-3. This mapping rules out the
principles not only for CORBA IDL, but also for other interface specification languages. The mapping can be adapted
to the details of other interface specification languages.
The Interface Definition Language (IDL) (clause 3 in [4]) is a base of the whole Common Object Request Broker
Architecture (CORBA) [4] and an important point in developing distributed systems with CORBA. It allows the reuse
and interoperability of objects in a system. A mapping between IDL and a programming language is defined in the
CORBA standard. IDL is very similar to C++ containing pre-processor directives (include, comments, etc.), grammar as
well as constant, type and operation declarations. There are no programming language features like, e.g. if-statements.
The core language of TTCN-3 is defined in ETSI ES 201 873-1 [1] and provides a full text-based syntax, static
semantics and operational semantics. The IDL mapping provides a definition for the use of the core language with IDL
(figure 1).
Core language format
TTCN-3
Core
ASN.1 Types
Language
& Values
XSD Graphical
definitions format
TTCN-3 User
Other Types Presentation The shaded boxes are not
& Values format defined in this document
n n
Figure 1: User's view of the core language and the various presentation formats
It makes no difference for the mapping if requested or provided interfaces are required by the test system and SUT.
Hence, TTCN can be used on client and server side without modifications to the mapping rules.
The present document is structured similar to the IDL specification document to provide easy access to the mapping of
each IDL element.
4.2 Approach
Two different approaches can be identified: the use of either implicit or explicit mapping. The implicit mapping makes
use of the import mechanism of TTCN-3, denoted by the keywords language and import. It facilitates the immediate use
of data specified in other languages. Therefore, the definition of a specific data interface for each of these languages is
required. Currently, ASN.1 data can be used besides the native TTCN-3 types (see ETSI ES 201 873-7 [i.1]).
The present document follows the approach of explicit mapping, i.e. IDL data are translated into appropriate TTCN-3
data. And only those TTCN-3 data are further used in the test specification.
4.3 Conformance and compatibility
For an implementation claiming to support the IDL to TTCN-3 mapping, all features specified in the present document
shall be implemented consistently with the requirements given in the present document and in ETSI ES 201 873-1 [1].
ETSI
---------------------- Page: 8 ----------------------
9 Final draft ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-03)
5 Lexical Conventions
5.0 General
The lexical conventions of IDL define the comments, identifiers, keywords and literals conventions which are described
in the following clauses.
5.1 Comments
Comment definitions in TTCN-3 and IDL are the same and therefore, no conversion of comments is necessary.
5.2 Identifiers
IDL identifier rules define a subset of the TTCN-3 rules in which no conversion is necessary.
5.3 Keywords
When IDL is used with TTCN-3 the keywords of TTCN-3 shall not be used as identifiers in an IDL module.
5.4 Literals
The definition of literals differs slightly between IDL and TTCN-3 why some modifications have to be made. Table B.1
gives the mapping for each literal type.
Table 1: Literal mapping
Literal IDL TTCN
Integer no "0" as first digit no "0" as first digit
Octet "0" as first digit 'FF96'O
Hex "0X" or "0x" as first digits 'AB01D'H
Floating 1222.44E5 (Base 10) 1222.44E5 (Base 10)
Char 'A' "A"
Wide char L"A" "A"
Boolean TRUE, FALSE true, false
String "text" "text"
Wide string L"text" "text"
Fixed point 33.33D (see useful type IDLfixed)
IDL uses the ISO Latin-1 character set for string and wide string literals and TTCN-3 uses Recommendation
ITU-T T.50 [2] for string literals and ISO/IEC 10646 [3] for wide string literals.
6 Pre-processing
Pre-processor statements are not matched to TTCN-3 because the IDL specification shall be used after pre-processing it.
7 Importing from IDL specifications
7.0 General
The import of module, interface, value and constant declaration are described in this clause. The type and exception
declaration as well as the bodies of interfaces are described later.
ETSI
---------------------- Page: 9 ----------------------
10 Final draft ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-03)
All imported IDL declarations are in TTCN-3 public by default (see clause 8.2.5 of ETSI ES 201 873-1 [1]).
7.1 Importing module declaration
IDL modules are mapped to TTCN-3 modules. Nested IDL modules shall be flattened accordingly to TTCN-3 modules.
As one IDL module can contain many nested IDL modules where several nested modules can have equal names in
different scopes, these names can clash. Hence, module names identifiers are to be used which are composed of the
identifiers of the upper level IDL modules (from hierarchical point of view) and the nested IDL module name, separated
one from each other by two underscores.
According to the IDL scoping rules nested modules have access to the scope of upper level modules. As there are no
nested modules in TTCN-3, TTCN-3 modules have to import upper level modules. For avoiding name clashes, a prefix
for the imported definitions composed of the identifier of the module from which it is imported shall be used. The prefix
and the identifier are separated by a dot (.) as defined in TTCN-3.
IDL EXAMPLE:
module identifier1 {
typedef long mylong1;
module identifier2 {
typedef string mystring2;
typedef mylong1 mylong2;
module identifier3 {
typedef mylong1 long_from_module_1;
typedef mystring2 string_from_module_2;
typedef mylong2 long_from_module_1_2;
};
};
};
TTCN EXAMPLE:
module identifier1 {
type long mylong1;
}
module identifier1__identifier2 {
import from identifier1 all;
type iso8859string mystring2;
type identifier1.mylong1 mylong2;
}
module identifier1__identifier2__identifier3 {
import from identifier1 all;
import from identifier1__identifier2 all;
type identifier1.mylong1 long_from_module_1;
type identifier1__identifier2.mystring2 string_from_module_2;
type identifier1__identifier2.mylong2 long_from_module_1_2;
};
7.2 Importing interface declaration
Interfaces are flattened and all interface definitions are stored in one group. In contrast to interfaces in IDL, groups in
TTCN-3 do not create a scope. Therefore, prefixes for all identifiers of type definitions inside of the interface shall be
used, which are a combination of the interface name and two underscores as the prefix.
Import of single interface definitions from other modules via the importing group statement is possible. This can be
used if inheritance is used in the IDL specification.
For each interface, a procedure-based port type is defined for the test specification. It is associated with signatures
translated from attributes and operations of the interface.
ETSI
---------------------- Page: 10 ----------------------
11 Final draft ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-03)
An IDL attribute is mapped to two signatures: one for the setting of a value and one for getting it. These signatures have
names composed of the prefix (interface name and two underscores), attribute name and the word "Set" (except for
"readonly") or "Get" correspondingly.
Since an interface can be used in operation parameters to pass object references, an address type is also declared in the
data part - the concrete implementation is left to the user. Components are used as collection of interfaces or objects.
IDL EXAMPLE:
interface identifier {
attribute long attributeId ;
void operationname ( in string param_value ) raises ( ExceptionType ) ;
... other body definitions ...
};
TTCN EXAMPLE:
group identifierInterface {
signature identifier__attributeIdGet () return long
exception ( . /* and all system exceptions defined in clause 9 */ );
signature identifier__attributeIdSet (in long identifier__attributeId)
exception ( . /* and all system exceptions defined in clause 9 */ );
signature identifier__operationname ( in iso8859string identifier__param_value )
exception ( ExceptionType, . /* and all system exceptions defined in clause 9 */ ) ;
.other body definitions .
type port identifier procedure { . }
type charstring identifierObject; /* a possible definition for the address type */
type identifierObject address;
}
Interface inheritance is executed by rolling out all inherited elements. Thus, they have to be handled as defined in the
interface itself. Multiple inheritance elements have to be inherited only once! As normally an inherited IDL interface
uses types defined in the module, usually it is essential to import the complete mapped TTCN-3 module. All inherited
elements have to be rolled out directly in the TTCN-3 group for the interface, even if the inheritance is multiple.
Forward references of interfaces are provided by forward referencing the according port of the interface. Local
interfaces are treated as normal interfaces. However it is recommend not to use forward references and to move a
TTCN-3 definition of the interface (group) to a place where a forward definition is used first time.
7.3 Importing value declaration
In contrast to type interface, the IDL type value has local operations that are not used outside the object, and are
therefore not relevant from the functional testing point of view. However, since the public attributes of value instances
are used to communicate object states, the IDL value type is mapped to the record type in TTCN-3.
The example below shows how to map valuetype and was used from clause 5.2.5 in [4].
IDL EXAMPLE:
valuetype EmployeeRecord {
// note this is not a CORBA::Object
// state definition
private string
...
SLOVENSKI STANDARD
SIST ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1:2017
01-september-2017
0HWRGH]DSUHVNXãDQMHLQVSHFLILFLUDQMH 076 UD]OLþLFD]DSLVDSUHVNXãDQMDLQ
NUPLOMHQMDSUHVNXVRYGHO 3UHVOLNDYD,'/Y77&1
Methods for Testing and Specification (MTS) - The Testing and Test Control Notation
version 3 - Part 8: The IDL to TTCN-3 Mapping
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-05)
ICS:
33.040.01 Telekomunikacijski sistemi Telecommunication systems
na splošno in general
SIST ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1:2017 en
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.
---------------------- Page: 1 ----------------------
SIST ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1:2017
---------------------- Page: 2 ----------------------
SIST ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1:2017
ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-05)
ETSI STANDARD
Methods for Testing and Specification (MTS);
The Testing and Test Control Notation version 3;
Part 8: The IDL to TTCN-3 Mapping
---------------------- Page: 3 ----------------------
SIST ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1:2017
2 ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-05)
Reference
RES/MTS-201873-8 ed471IDL
Keywords
IDL, testing, TTCN
ETSI
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ETSI
---------------------- Page: 4 ----------------------
SIST ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1:2017
3 ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-05)
Contents
Intellectual Property Rights . 5
Foreword . 5
Modal verbs terminology . 5
1 Scope . 6
2 References . 6
2.1 Normative references . 6
2.2 Informative references . 6
3 Abbreviations . 7
4 General considerations . 7
4.1 Introduction . 7
4.2 Approach . 8
4.3 Conformance and compatibility . 8
5 Lexical Conventions . 9
5.0 General . 9
5.1 Comments. 9
5.2 Identifiers . 9
5.3 Keywords . 9
5.4 Literals . 9
6 Pre-processing . 9
7 Importing from IDL specifications . 9
7.0 General . 9
7.1 Importing module declaration . 10
7.2 Importing interface declaration . 10
7.3 Importing value declaration . 11
7.4 Importing constant declaration . 12
8 Importing type declaration . 12
8.0 General . 12
8.1 IDL basic types . 12
8.1.0 General approach . 12
8.1.1 Integer and floating-point types . 13
8.1.2 Char and wide char type . 13
8.1.3 Boolean type . 13
8.1.4 Octet type . 13
8.1.5 Any type . 13
8.2 Constructed types . 14
8.2.0 General approach . 14
8.2.1 Struct . 14
8.2.2 Discriminated unions . 14
8.2.3 Enumerations . 15
8.3 Template types . 15
8.3.0 General approach . 15
8.3.1 Sequence . 16
8.3.2 String and wstring . 16
8.3.3 Fixed types . 16
8.4 Complex declarator . 16
8.4.0 General approach . 16
8.4.1 Arrays . 16
8.4.2 Native types . 17
9 Importing exception declaration . 17
10 Importing operation declaration . 18
ETSI
---------------------- Page: 5 ----------------------
SIST ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1:2017
4 ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-05)
11 Importing attribute declaration . 20
12 Names and scoping . 20
Annex A (informative): Examples . 22
A.1 The example . 22
A.2 IDL specification . 22
A.3 Derived TTCN-3 specification . 23
Annex B (informative): Mapping lists . 28
B.1 IDL keyword and concept mapping list . 28
B.2 Comparison of IDL, ASN.1, TTCN-2 and TTCN-3 data types . 29
Annex C (informative): Bibliography . 30
History . 31
ETSI
---------------------- Page: 6 ----------------------
SIST ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1:2017
5 ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-05)
Intellectual Property Rights
IPRs essential or potentially essential to the present document may have been declared to ETSI. The information
pertaining to these essential IPRs, if any, is publicly available for ETSI members and non-members, and can be found
in ETSI SR 000 314: "Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs); Essential, or potentially Essential, IPRs notified to ETSI in
respect of ETSI standards", which is available from the ETSI Secretariat. Latest updates are available on the ETSI Web
server (https://ipr.etsi.org/).
Pursuant to the ETSI IPR Policy, no investigation, including IPR searches, has been carried out by ETSI. No guarantee
can be given as to the existence of other IPRs not referenced in ETSI SR 000 314 (or the updates on the ETSI Web
server) which are, or may be, or may become, essential to the present document.
Foreword
This ETSI Standard (ES) has been produced by ETSI Technical Committee Methods for Testing and Specification
(MTS).
The present document is part 8 of a multi-part deliverable. Full details of the entire series can be found in part 1 [1].
Modal verbs terminology
In the present document "shall", "shall not", "should", "should not", "may", "need not", "will", "will not", "can" and
"cannot" are to be interpreted as described in clause 3.2 of the ETSI Drafting Rules (Verbal forms for the expression of
provisions).
"must" and "must not" are NOT allowed in ETSI deliverables except when used in direct citation.
ETSI
---------------------- Page: 7 ----------------------
SIST ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1:2017
6 ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-05)
1 Scope
The present document defines the mapping rules for CORBA IDL (as defined in clause 3 in [4]) to TTCN-3 (as defined
in ETSI ES 201 873-1 [1]) to enable testing of CORBA-based systems. The principles of mapping CORBA IDL to
TTCN-3 can be also used for the mapping of interface specification languages of other object-/component-based
technologies.
The specification of other mappings is outside the scope of the present document.
2 References
2.1 Normative references
References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific. For specific references, only the cited version applies. For non-specific references, the latest version of the
referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
Referenced documents which are not found to be publicly available in the expected location might be found at
http://docbox.etsi.org/Reference.
NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication, ETSI cannot guarantee
their long term validity.
The following referenced documents are necessary for the application of the present document.
[1] ETSI ES 201 873-1: "Methods for Testing and Specification (MTS); The Testing and Test Control
Notation version 3; Part 1: TTCN-3 Core Language".
[2] Recommendation ITU-T T.50: "International Reference Alphabet (IRA) (Formerly International
Alphabet No. 5 or IA5) - Information technology - 7-bit coded character set for information
interchange".
[3] ISO/IEC 10646:2014: "Information technology -- Universal Coded Character Set (UCS)".
®
[4] CORBA 3.0: "The Common Object Request Broker: Architecture and Specification".
NOTE: Available at http://www.omg.org/spec/CORBA/.
2.2 Informative references
References are either specific (identified by date of publication and/or edition number or version number) or
non-specific. For specific references, only the cited version applies. For non-specific references, the latest version of the
referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
NOTE: While any hyperlinks included in this clause were valid at the time of publication, ETSI cannot guarantee
their long term validity.
The following referenced documents are not necessary for the application of the present document but they assist the
user with regard to a particular subject area.
[i.1] ETSI ES 201 873-7: "Methods for Testing and Specification (MTS); The Testing and Test Control
Notation version 3; Part 7: Using ASN.1 with TTCN-3".
[i.2] Void.
[i.3] Void.
[i.4] Void.
ETSI
---------------------- Page: 8 ----------------------
SIST ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1:2017
7 ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-05)
[i.5] ETSI ES 202 781: "Methods for Testing and Specification (MTS); The Testing and Test Control
Notation version 3; TTCN-3 Language Extensions: Configuration and Deployment Support".
[i.6] ETSI ES 202 782: "Methods for Testing and Specification (MTS); The Testing and Test Control
Notation version 3; TTCN-3 Language Extensions: TTCN-3 Performance and Real Time Testing".
[i.7] ETSI ES 202 784: "Methods for Testing and Specification (MTS); The Testing and Test Control
Notation version 3; TTCN-3 Language Extensions: Advanced Parameterization".
[i.8] ETSI ES 202 785: "Methods for Testing and Specification (MTS); The Testing and Test Control
Notation version 3; TTCN-3 Language Extensions: Behaviour Types".
[i.9] ETSI ES 202 786: "Methods for Testing and Specification (MTS); The Testing and Test Control
Notation version 3; TTCN-3 Language Extensions: Support of interfaces with continuous signals".
3 Abbreviations
For the purposes of the present document, the following abbreviations apply:
ASN.1 Abstract Syntax Notation One
CCM CORBA Component Model
®
NOTE: By OMG .
CORBA Common Object Request Broker Architecture
®
NOTE: By OMG .
DCE Distributed Computing Environment
NOTE: By OSF.
TM
EJB Enterprise JavaBeans
®
NOTE: By Sun .
IDL Interface Definition Language
NET XML-based component technology
®
NOTE: By Microsoft .
OMG Object Management Group
OSF Open Software Foundation
SUT System Under Test
TTCN Testing and Test Control Notation
XML eXtended Markup Language
4 General considerations
4.1 Introduction
Object-based technologies (such as CORBA, DCOM, DCE) and component-based technologies (such as CCM, EJB,
®
Microsoft .NET) use interface specifications to describe the structure of an object-/component-based system and its
operations and capabilities to interact with the environment. These interface specifications support interoperability and
reusability of objects/components.
The techniques used for interface specifications are often called Interface Definition Language (IDL), for example
®
CORBA IDL, Microsoft IDL or DCE IDL. These languages are comparable in their abilities to define system
interfaces, operations at system interfaces and system structures to various extends. They differ in details of the
object/component model.
ETSI
---------------------- Page: 9 ----------------------
SIST ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1:2017
8 ETSI ES 201 873-8 V4.7.1 (2017-05)
When considering the testing of object-/component-based systems with TTCN-3, one is faced with the problem of
accessing the systems to be tested via the system interfaces as described in an IDL specification. In particular, for
TTCN-3 based test systems a direct import of IDL specifications into the test specifications for the use of e.g. system's
interface, operation and exception definitions is prevalent to any manual transformation into TTCN-3.
The present document discusses the mapping of CORBA IDL specifications into TTCN-3. This mapping rules out the
principles not only for CORBA IDL, but also for other interface specification languages. The mapping can be adapted
to the details of other interface specification languages.
The Interface Definition Language (IDL) (clause 3 in [4]) is a base of the whole Common Object Request Broker
Architecture (CORBA) [4] and an important point in developing distributed systems with CORBA. It allows the reuse
and interoperability of objects in a system. A mapping between IDL and a programming language is defined in the
CORBA standard. IDL is very similar to C++ containing pre-processor directives (include, comments, etc.), grammar as
well as constant, type and operation declarations. There are no programming language features like, e.g. if-statements.
The core language of TTCN-3 is defined in ETSI ES 201 873-1 [1] and provides a full text-based syntax, static
semantics and operational semantics. The IDL mapping provides a definition for the use of the core language with IDL
(figure 1).
Core language format
TTCN-3
Core
ASN.1 Types
Language
& Values
XSD Graphical
definitions format
TTCN-3 User
Other Types Presentation The shaded boxes are not
& Values format defined in this document
n n
Figure 1: User's view of the core language and the various presentation formats
It makes no difference for the mapping if requested or provided interfaces are required by the test system and SUT.
Hence, TTCN can be used on client and server side without modifications to the mapping rules.
The present document is structured similar to the IDL specification document to provide easy access to the mapping of
each IDL element.
4.2 Approach
Two different approaches can be identified: the use of either implicit or explicit mapping. The implicit mapping makes
use of the import mechanism of TTCN-3, denoted by the keywords language and import. It facilitates the immediate use
of data specified in other languages. Therefore, the definition of a specific data interface for each of these languages is
required. Currently, ASN.1 data can be used besides the native TTCN-3 types (see ETSI ES 201 873-7 [i.1]).
The present document follows the approach of explicit mapping, i.e. IDL data are translated into appropriate TTCN-3
data. And only those TTCN-3 data are further used in the test specification.
4.3 Conformance and compatibility
For an implementation claiming to support the IDL to TTCN-3 mapping, all features specified in the present document
shall be implemented consistently with the requirements given in the present document and in ETSI ES 201 873-1 [1].
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5 Lexical Conventions
5.0 General
The lexical conventions of IDL define the comments, identifiers, keywords and literals conventions which are described
in the following clauses.
5.1 Comments
Comment definitions in TTCN-3 and IDL are the same and therefore, no conversion of comments is necessary.
5.2 Identifiers
IDL identifier rules define a subset of the TTCN-3 rules in which no conversion is necessary.
5.3 Keywords
When IDL is used with TTCN-3 the keywords of TTCN-3 shall not be used as identifiers in an IDL module.
5.4 Literals
The definition of literals differs slightly between IDL and TTCN-3 why some modifications have to be made. Table B.1
gives the mapping for each literal type.
Table 1: Literal mapping
Literal IDL TTCN
Integer no "0" as first digit no "0" as first digit
Octet "0" as first digit 'FF96'O
Hex "0X" or "0x" as first digits 'AB01D'H
Floating 1222.44E5 (Base 10) 1222.44E5 (Base 10)
Char 'A' "A"
Wide char L"A" "A"
Boolean TRUE, FALSE true, false
String "text" "text"
Wide string L"text" "text"
Fixed point 33.33D (see useful type IDLfixed)
IDL uses the ISO Latin-1 character set for string and wide string literals and TTCN-3 uses Recommendation ITU-T
T.50 [2] for string literals and ISO/IEC 10646 [3] for wide string literals.
6 Pre-processing
Pre-processor statements are not matched to TTCN-3 because the IDL specification shall be used after pre-processing it.
7 Importing from IDL specifications
7.0 General
The import of module, interface, value and constant declaration are described in this clause. The type and exception
declaration as well as the bodies of interfaces are described later.
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All imported IDL declarations are in TTCN-3 public by default (see clause 8.2.5 of ETSI ES 201 873-1 [1]).
7.1 Importing module declaration
IDL modules are mapped to TTCN-3 modules. Nested IDL modules shall be flattened accordingly to TTCN-3 modules.
As one IDL module can contain many nested IDL modules where several nested modules can have equal names in
different scopes, these names can clash. Hence, module names identifiers are to be used which are composed of the
identifiers of the upper level IDL modules (from hierarchical point of view) and the nested IDL module name, separated
one from each other by two underscores.
According to the IDL scoping rules nested modules have access to the scope of upper level modules. As there are no
nested modules in TTCN-3, TTCN-3 modules have to import upper level modules. For avoiding name clashes, a prefix
for the imported definitions composed of the identifier of the module from which it is imported shall be used. The prefix
and the identifier are separated by a dot (.) as defined in TTCN-3.
IDL EXAMPLE:
module identifier1 {
typedef long mylong1;
module identifier2 {
typedef string mystring2;
typedef mylong1 mylong2;
module identifier3 {
typedef mylong1 long_from_module_1;
typedef mystring2 string_from_module_2;
typedef mylong2 long_from_module_1_2;
};
};
};
TTCN EXAMPLE:
module identifier1 {
type long mylong1;
}
module identifier1__identifier2 {
import from identifier1 all;
type iso8859string mystring2;
type identifier1.mylong1 mylong2;
}
module identifier1__identifier2__identifier3 {
import from identifier1 all;
import from identifier1__identifier2 all;
type identifier1.mylong1 long_from_module_1;
type identifier1__identifier2.mystring2 string_from_module_2;
type identifier1__identifier2.mylong2 long_from_module_1_2;
};
7.2 Importing interface declaration
Interfaces are flattened and all interface definitions are stored in one group. In contrast to interfaces in IDL, groups in
TTCN-3 do not create a scope. Therefore, prefixes for all identifiers of type definitions inside of the interface shall be
used, which are a combination of the interface name and two underscores as the prefix.
Import of single interface definitions from other modules via the importing group statement is possible. This can be
used if inheritance is used in the IDL specification.
For each interface, a procedure-based port type is defined for the test specification. It is associated with signatures
translated from attributes and operations of the interface.
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An IDL attribute is mapped to two signatures: one for the setting of a value and one for getting it. These signatures have
names composed of the prefix (interface name and two underscores), attribute name and the word "Set" (except for
"readonly") or "Get" correspondingly.
Since an interface can be used in operation parameters to pass object references, an address type is also declared in the
data part - the concrete implementation is left to the user. Components are used as collection of interfaces or objects.
IDL EXAMPLE:
interface identifier {
attribute long attributeId ;
void operationname ( in string param_value ) raises ( ExceptionType ) ;
... other body definitions ...
};
TTCN EXAMPLE:
group identifierInterface {
signature identifier__attributeIdGet () return long
exception ( . /* and all system exceptions defined in clause 9 */ );
signature identifier__attributeIdSet (in long identifier__attributeId)
exception ( . /* and all system exceptions defined in clause 9 */ );
signature identifier__operationname ( in iso8859string identifier__param_value )
exception ( ExceptionType, . /* and all system exceptions defined in clause 9 */ ) ;
.other body definitions .
type port identifier procedure { . }
type charstring identifierObject; /* a possible definition for the address type */
type identifierObject address;
}
Interface inheritance is executed by rolling out all inherited elements. Thus, they have to be handled as defined in the
interface itself. Multiple inheritance elements have to be inherited only once! As normally an inherited IDL interface
uses types defined in the module, usually it is essential to import the complete mapped TTCN-3 module. All inherited
elements have to be rolled out directl
...
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