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<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"><title>3.�Programming with ODR</title><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.78.1"><link rel="home" href="index.html" title="YAZ User's Guide and Reference"><link rel="up" href="odr.html" title="Chapter�8.�The ODR Module"><link rel="prev" href="odr.use.html" title="2.�Using ODR"><link rel="next" href="odr.debugging.html" title="4.�Debugging"></head><body><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="common/style1.css"><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">3.�Programming with ODR</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="odr.use.html">Prev</a>�</td><th width="60%" align="center">Chapter�8.�The ODR Module</th><td width="20%" align="right">�<a accesskey="n" href="odr.debugging.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr></div><div class="sect1"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="odr.programming"></a>3.�Programming with ODR</h2></div></div></div><p> The API of <acronym class="acronym">ODR</acronym> is designed to reflect the structure of ASN.1, rather than BER itself. Future releases may be able to represent data in other external forms. </p><div class="tip" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;"><h3 class="title">Tip</h3><p> There is an ASN.1 tutorial available at <a class="ulink" href="http://asn1.elibel.tm.fr/en/introduction/" target="_top">this site</a>. This site also has standards for ASN.1 (X.680) and BER (X.690) <a class="ulink" href="http://asn1.elibel.tm.fr/en/standards/" target="_top">online</a>. </p></div><p> The ODR interface is based loosely on that of the Sun Microsystems XDR routines. Specifically, each function which corresponds to an ASN.1 primitive type has a dual function. Depending on the settings of the ODR stream which is supplied as a parameter, the function may be used either to encode or decode data. The functions that can be built using these primitive functions, to represent more complex data types, share this quality. The result is that you only have to enter the definition for a type once - and you have the functionality of encoding, decoding (and pretty-printing) all in one unit. The resulting C source code is quite compact, and is a pretty straightforward representation of the source ASN.1 specification. </p><p> In many cases, the model of the XDR functions works quite well in this role. In others, it is less elegant. Most of the hassle comes from the optional SEQUENCE members which don't exist in XDR. </p><div class="sect2"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="odr.primitive.asn1.types"></a>3.1.�The Primitive ASN.1 Types</h3></div></div></div><p> ASN.1 defines a number of primitive types (many of which correspond roughly to primitive types in structured programming languages, such as C). </p><div class="sect3"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a name="odr.integer"></a>3.1.1.�INTEGER</h4></div></div></div><p> The <acronym class="acronym">ODR</acronym> function for encoding or decoding (or printing) the ASN.1 INTEGER type looks like this: </p><pre class="synopsis"> int odr_integer(ODR o, Odr_int **p, int optional, const char *name); </pre><p> The <code class="literal">Odr_int</code> is just a simple integer. </p><p> This form is typical of the primitive <acronym class="acronym">ODR</acronym> functions. They are named after the type of data that they encode or decode. They take an <acronym class="acronym">ODR</acronym> stream, an indirect reference to the type in question, and an <code class="literal">optional</code> flag (corresponding to the OPTIONAL keyword of ASN.1) as parameters. They all return an integer value of either one or zero. When you use the primitive functions to construct encoders for complex types of your own, you should follow this model as well. This ensures that your new types can be reused as elements in yet more complex types. </p><p> The <code class="literal">o</code> parameter should obviously refer to a properly initialized <acronym class="acronym">ODR</acronym> stream of the right type (encoding/decoding/printing) for the operation that you wish to perform. </p><p> When encoding or printing, the function first looks at <code class="literal">* p</code>. If <code class="literal">* p</code> (the pointer pointed to by <code class="literal">p</code>) is a null pointer, this is taken to mean that the data element is absent. If the <code class="literal">optional</code> parameter is nonzero, the function will return one (signifying success) without any further processing. If the <code class="literal">optional</code> is zero, an internal error flag is set in the <acronym class="acronym">ODR</acronym> stream, and the function will return 0. No further operations can be carried out on the stream without a call to the function <code class="function">odr_reset()</code>. </p><p> If <code class="literal">*p</code> is not a null pointer, it is expected to point to an instance of the data type. The data will be subjected to the encoding rules, and the result will be placed in the buffer held by the <acronym class="acronym">ODR</acronym> stream. </p><p> The other ASN.1 primitives have similar functions that operate in similar manners: </p></div><div class="sect3"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a name="odr.boolean"></a>3.1.2.�BOOLEAN</h4></div></div></div><pre class="synopsis"> int odr_bool(ODR o, Odr_bool **p, int optional, const char *name); </pre></div><div class="sect3"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a name="odr.real"></a>3.1.3.�REAL</h4></div></div></div><p> Not defined. </p></div><div class="sect3"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a name="odr.null"></a>3.1.4.�NULL</h4></div></div></div><pre class="synopsis"> int odr_null(ODR o, Odr_null **p, int optional, const char *name); </pre><p> In this case, the value of **p is not important. If <code class="literal">*p</code> is different from the null pointer, the null value is present, otherwise it's absent. </p></div><div class="sect3"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a name="odr.octet.string"></a>3.1.5.�OCTET STRING</h4></div></div></div><pre class="synopsis"> typedef struct odr_oct { unsigned char *buf; int len; } Odr_oct; int odr_octetstring(ODR o, Odr_oct **p, int optional, const char *name); </pre><p> The <code class="literal">buf</code> field should point to the character array that holds the octetstring. The <code class="literal">len</code> field holds the actual length. The character array need not be null terminated. </p><p> To make things a little easier, an alternative is given for string types that are not expected to contain embedded NULL characters (eg. VisibleString): </p><pre class="synopsis"> int odr_cstring(ODR o, char **p, int optional, const char *name); </pre><p> Which encoded or decodes between OCTETSTRING representations and null-terminates C strings. </p><p> Functions are provided for the derived string types, eg: </p><pre class="synopsis"> int odr_visiblestring(ODR o, char **p, int optional, const char *name); </pre></div><div class="sect3"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a name="odr.bit.string"></a>3.1.6.�BIT STRING</h4></div></div></div><pre class="synopsis"> int odr_bitstring(ODR o, Odr_bitmask **p, int optional, const char *name); </pre><p> The opaque type <code class="literal">Odr_bitmask</code> is only suitable for holding relatively brief bit strings, eg. for options fields, etc. The constant <code class="literal">ODR_BITMASK_SIZE</code> multiplied by 8 gives the maximum possible number of bits. </p><p> A set of macros are provided for manipulating the <code class="literal">Odr_bitmask</code> type: </p><pre class="synopsis"> void ODR_MASK_ZERO(Odr_bitmask *b); void ODR_MASK_SET(Odr_bitmask *b, int bitno); void ODR_MASK_CLEAR(Odr_bitmask *b, int bitno); int ODR_MASK_GET(Odr_bitmask *b, int bitno); </pre><p> The functions are modeled after the manipulation functions that accompany the <code class="literal">fd_set</code> type used by the <code class="function">select(2)</code> call. <code class="literal">ODR_MASK_ZERO</code> should always be called first on a new bitmask, to initialize the bits to zero. </p></div><div class="sect3"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a name="odr.object.identifier"></a>3.1.7.�OBJECT IDENTIFIER</h4></div></div></div><pre class="synopsis"> int odr_oid(ODR o, Odr_oid **p, int optional, const char *name); </pre><p> The C OID representation is simply an array of integers, terminated by the value -1 (the <code class="literal">Odr_oid</code> type is synonymous with the <code class="literal">short</code> type). We suggest that you use the OID database module (see <a class="xref" href="tools.oid.html#tools.oid.database" title="2.1.�OID database">Section�2.1, “OID database”</a>) to handle object identifiers in your application. </p></div></div><div class="sect2"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="odr.tagging.primitive.types"></a>3.2.�Tagging Primitive Types</h3></div></div></div><p> The simplest way of tagging a type is to use the <code class="function">odr_implicit_tag()</code> or <code class="function">odr_explicit_tag()</code> macros: </p><pre class="synopsis"> int odr_implicit_tag(ODR o, Odr_fun fun, int class, int tag, int optional, const char *name); int odr_explicit_tag(ODR o, Odr_fun fun, int class, int tag, int optional, const char *name); </pre><p> To create a type derived from the integer type by implicit tagging, you might write: </p><pre class="screen"> MyInt ::= [210] IMPLICIT INTEGER </pre><p> In the <acronym class="acronym">ODR</acronym> system, this would be written like: </p><pre class="screen"> int myInt(ODR o, Odr_int **p, int optional, const char *name) { return odr_implicit_tag(o, odr_integer, p, ODR_CONTEXT, 210, optional, name); } </pre><p> The function <code class="function">myInt()</code> can then be used like any of the primitive functions provided by <acronym class="acronym">ODR</acronym>. Note that the behavior of <code class="function">odr_explicit_tag()</code> and <code class="function">odr_implicit_tag()</code> macros act exactly the same as the functions they are applied to - they respond to error conditions, etc, in the same manner - they simply have three extra parameters. The class parameter may take one of the values: <code class="literal">ODR_CONTEXT</code>, <code class="literal">ODR_PRIVATE</code>, <code class="literal">ODR_UNIVERSAL</code>, or <code class="literal">/ODR_APPLICATION</code>. </p></div><div class="sect2"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="odr.constructed.types"></a>3.3.�Constructed Types</h3></div></div></div><p> Constructed types are created by combining primitive types. The <acronym class="acronym">ODR</acronym> system only implements the SEQUENCE and SEQUENCE OF constructions (although adding the rest of the container types should be simple enough, if the need arises). </p><p> For implementing SEQUENCEs, the functions </p><pre class="synopsis"> int odr_sequence_begin(ODR o, void *p, int size, const char *name); int odr_sequence_end(ODR o); </pre><p> are provided. </p><p> The <code class="function">odr_sequence_begin()</code> function should be called in the beginning of a function that implements a SEQUENCE type. Its parameters are the <acronym class="acronym">ODR</acronym> stream, a pointer (to a pointer to the type you're implementing), and the <code class="literal">size</code> of the type (typically a C structure). On encoding, it returns 1 if <code class="literal">* p</code> is a null pointer. The <code class="literal">size</code> parameter is ignored. On decoding, it returns 1 if the type is found in the data stream. <code class="literal">size</code> bytes of memory are allocated, and <code class="literal">*p</code> is set to point to this space. <code class="function">odr_sequence_end()</code> is called at the end of the complex function. Assume that a type is defined like this: </p><pre class="screen"> MySequence ::= SEQUENCE { intval INTEGER, boolval BOOLEAN OPTIONAL } </pre><p> The corresponding <acronym class="acronym">ODR</acronym> encoder/decoder function and the associated data structures could be written like this: </p><pre class="screen"> typedef struct MySequence { Odr_int *intval; Odr_bool *boolval; } MySequence; int mySequence(ODR o, MySequence **p, int optional, const char *name) { if (odr_sequence_begin(o, p, sizeof(**p), name) == 0) return optional && odr_ok(o); return odr_integer(o, &(*p)->intval, 0, "intval") && odr_bool(o, &(*p)->boolval, 1, "boolval") && odr_sequence_end(o); } </pre><p> Note the 1 in the call to <code class="function">odr_bool()</code>, to mark that the sequence member is optional. If either of the member types had been tagged, the macros <code class="function">odr_implicit_tag()</code> or <code class="function">odr_explicit_tag()</code> could have been used. The new function can be used exactly like the standard functions provided with <acronym class="acronym">ODR</acronym>. It will encode, decode or pretty-print a data value of the <code class="literal">MySequence</code> type. We like to name types with an initial capital, as done in ASN.1 definitions, and to name the corresponding function with the first character of the name in lower case. You could, of course, name your structures, types, and functions any way you please - as long as you're consistent, and your code is easily readable. <code class="literal">odr_ok</code> is just that - a predicate that returns the state of the stream. It is used to ensure that the behavior of the new type is compatible with the interface of the primitive types. </p></div><div class="sect2"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="odr.tagging.constructed.types"></a>3.4.�Tagging Constructed Types</h3></div></div></div><div class="note" style="margin-left: 0.5in; margin-right: 0.5in;"><h3 class="title">Note</h3><p> See <a class="xref" href="odr.programming.html#odr.tagging.primitive.types" title="3.2.�Tagging Primitive Types">Section�3.2, “Tagging Primitive Types”</a> for information on how to tag the primitive types, as well as types that are already defined. </p></div><div class="sect3"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a name="odr.implicit.tagging"></a>3.4.1.�Implicit Tagging</h4></div></div></div><p> Assume the type above had been defined as </p><pre class="screen"> MySequence ::= [10] IMPLICIT SEQUENCE { intval INTEGER, boolval BOOLEAN OPTIONAL } </pre><p> You would implement this in <acronym class="acronym">ODR</acronym> by calling the function </p><pre class="synopsis"> int odr_implicit_settag(ODR o, int class, int tag); </pre><p> which overrides the tag of the type immediately following it. The macro <code class="function">odr_implicit_tag()</code> works by calling <code class="function">odr_implicit_settag()</code> immediately before calling the function pointer argument. Your type function could look like this: </p><pre class="screen"> int mySequence(ODR o, MySequence **p, int optional, const char *name) { if (odr_implicit_settag(o, ODR_CONTEXT, 10) == 0 || odr_sequence_begin(o, p, sizeof(**p), name) == 0) return optional && odr_ok(o); return odr_integer(o, &(*p)->intval, 0, "intval") && odr_bool(o, &(*p)->boolval, 1, "boolval") && odr_sequence_end(o); } </pre><p> The definition of the structure <code class="literal">MySequence</code> would be the same. </p></div><div class="sect3"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a name="odr.explicit.tagging"></a>3.4.2.�Explicit Tagging</h4></div></div></div><p> Explicit tagging of constructed types is a little more complicated, since you are in effect adding a level of construction to the data. </p><p> Assume the definition: </p><pre class="screen"> MySequence ::= [10] IMPLICIT SEQUENCE { intval INTEGER, boolval BOOLEAN OPTIONAL } </pre><p> Since the new type has an extra level of construction, two new functions are needed to encapsulate the base type: </p><pre class="synopsis"> int odr_constructed_begin(ODR o, void *p, int class, int tag, const char *name); int odr_constructed_end(ODR o); </pre><p> Assume that the IMPLICIT in the type definition above were replaced with EXPLICIT (or that the IMPLICIT keyword were simply deleted, which would be equivalent). The structure definition would look the same, but the function would look like this: </p><pre class="screen"> int mySequence(ODR o, MySequence **p, int optional, const char *name) { if (odr_constructed_begin(o, p, ODR_CONTEXT, 10, name) == 0) return optional && odr_ok(o); if (o->direction == ODR_DECODE) *p = odr_malloc(o, sizeof(**p)); if (odr_sequence_begin(o, p, sizeof(**p), 0) == 0) { *p = 0; /* this is almost certainly a protocol error */ return 0; } return odr_integer(o, &(*p)->intval, 0, "intval") && odr_bool(o, &(*p)->boolval, 1, "boolval") && odr_sequence_end(o) && odr_constructed_end(o); } </pre><p> Notice that the interface here gets kind of nasty. The reason is simple: Explicitly tagged, constructed types are fairly rare in the protocols that we care about, so the esthetic annoyance (not to mention the dangers of a cluttered interface) is less than the time that would be required to develop a better interface. Nevertheless, it is far from satisfying, and it's a point that will be worked on in the future. One option for you would be to simply apply the <code class="function">odr_explicit_tag()</code> macro to the first function, and not have to worry about <code class="function">odr_constructed_*</code> yourself. Incidentally, as you might have guessed, the <code class="function">odr_sequence_</code> functions are themselves implemented using the <code class="function">/odr_constructed_</code> functions. </p></div></div><div class="sect2"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="odr.sequence.of"></a>3.5.�SEQUENCE OF</h3></div></div></div><p> To handle sequences (arrays) of a specific type, the function </p><pre class="synopsis"> int odr_sequence_of(ODR o, int (*fun)(ODR o, void *p, int optional), void *p, int *num, const char *name); </pre><p> The <code class="literal">fun</code> parameter is a pointer to the decoder/encoder function of the type. <code class="literal">p</code> is a pointer to an array of pointers to your type. <code class="literal">num</code> is the number of elements in the array. </p><p> Assume a type </p><pre class="screen"> MyArray ::= SEQUENCE OF INTEGER </pre><p> The C representation might be </p><pre class="screen"> typedef struct MyArray { int num_elements; Odr_int **elements; } MyArray; </pre><p> And the function might look like </p><pre class="screen"> int myArray(ODR o, MyArray **p, int optional, const char *name) { if (o->direction == ODR_DECODE) *p = odr_malloc(o, sizeof(**p)); if (odr_sequence_of(o, odr_integer, &(*p)->elements, &(*p)->num_elements, name)) return 1; *p = 0; return optional && odr_ok(o); } </pre></div><div class="sect2"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a name="odr.choice.types"></a>3.6.�CHOICE Types</h3></div></div></div><p> The choice type is used fairly often in some ASN.1 definitions, so some work has gone into streamlining its interface. </p><p> CHOICE types are handled by the function: </p><pre class="synopsis"> int odr_choice(ODR o, Odr_arm arm[], void *p, void *whichp, const char *name); </pre><p> The <code class="literal">arm</code> array is used to describe each of the possible types that the CHOICE type may assume. Internally in your application, the CHOICE type is represented as a discriminated union. That is, a C union accompanied by an integer (or enum) identifying the active 'arm' of the union. <code class="literal">whichp</code> is a pointer to the union discriminator. When encoding, it is examined to determine the current type. When decoding, it is set to reference the type that was found in the input stream. </p><p> The Odr_arm type is defined thus: </p><pre class="screen"> typedef struct odr_arm { int tagmode; int class; int tag; int which; Odr_fun fun; char *name; } Odr_arm; </pre><p> The interpretation of the fields are: </p><div class="variablelist"><dl class="variablelist"><dt><span class="term">tagmode</span></dt><dd><p>Either <code class="literal">ODR_IMPLICIT</code>, <code class="literal">ODR_EXPLICIT</code>, or <code class="literal">ODR_NONE</code> (-1) to mark no tagging.</p></dd><dt><span class="term">which</span></dt><dd><p>The value of the discriminator that corresponds to this CHOICE element. Typically, it will be a #defined constant, or an enum member.</p></dd><dt><span class="term">fun</span></dt><dd><p>A pointer to a function that implements the type of the CHOICE member. It may be either a standard <acronym class="acronym">ODR</acronym> type or a type defined by yourself.</p></dd><dt><span class="term">name</span></dt><dd><p>Name of tag.</p></dd></dl></div><p> A handy way to prepare the array for use by the <code class="function">odr_choice()</code> function is to define it as a static, initialized array in the beginning of your decoding/encoding function. Assume the type definition: </p><pre class="screen"> MyChoice ::= CHOICE { untagged INTEGER, tagged [99] IMPLICIT INTEGER, other BOOLEAN } </pre><p> Your C type might look like </p><pre class="screen"> typedef struct MyChoice { enum { MyChoice_untagged, MyChoice_tagged, MyChoice_other } which; union { Odr_int *untagged; Odr_int *tagged; Odr_bool *other; } u; }; </pre><p> And your function could look like this: </p><pre class="screen"> int myChoice(ODR o, MyChoice **p, int optional, const char *name) { static Odr_arm arm[] = { {-1, -1, -1, MyChoice_untagged, odr_integer, "untagged"}, {ODR_IMPLICIT, ODR_CONTEXT, 99, MyChoice_tagged, odr_integer, "tagged"}, {-1, -1, -1, MyChoice_other, odr_boolean, "other"}, {-1, -1, -1, -1, 0} }; if (o->direction == ODR_DECODE) *p = odr_malloc(o, sizeof(**p); else if (!*p) return optional && odr_ok(o); if (odr_choice(o, arm, &(*p)->u, &(*p)->which), name) return 1; *p = 0; return optional && odr_ok(o); } </pre><p> In some cases (say, a non-optional choice which is a member of a sequence), you can "embed" the union and its discriminator in the structure belonging to the enclosing type, and you won't need to fiddle with memory allocation to create a separate structure to wrap the discriminator and union. </p><p> The corresponding function is somewhat nicer in the Sun XDR interface. Most of the complexity of this interface comes from the possibility of declaring sequence elements (including CHOICEs) optional. </p><p> The ASN.1 specifications naturally requires that each member of a CHOICE have a distinct tag, so they can be told apart on decoding. Sometimes it can be useful to define a CHOICE that has multiple types that share the same tag. You'll need some other mechanism, perhaps keyed to the context of the CHOICE type. In effect, we would like to introduce a level of context-sensitiveness to our ASN.1 specification. When encoding an internal representation, we have no problem, as long as each CHOICE member has a distinct discriminator value. For decoding, we need a way to tell the choice function to look for a specific arm of the table. The function </p><pre class="synopsis"> void odr_choice_bias(ODR o, int what); </pre><p> provides this functionality. When called, it leaves a notice for the next call to <code class="function">odr_choice()</code> to be called on the decoding stream <code class="literal">o</code> that only the <code class="literal">arm</code> entry with a <code class="literal">which</code> field equal to <code class="literal">what</code> should be tried. </p><p> The most important application (perhaps the only one, really) is in the definition of application-specific EXTERNAL encoders/decoders which will automatically decode an ANY member given the direct or indirect reference. </p></div></div><div class="navfooter"><hr><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="odr.use.html">Prev</a>�</td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="odr.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right">�<a accesskey="n" href="odr.debugging.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">2.�Using ODR�</td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top">�4.�Debugging</td></tr></table></div></body></html>