2.10 Locating Remote Objects

A simple bootstrap name server is provided for storing named references to remote objects. A remote object reference can be stored using the URL-based methods of the class java.rmi.Naming.

For a client to invoke a method on a remote object, that client must first obtain a reference to the object. A reference to a remote object is usually obtained as a return value in a method call. The RMI system provides a simple bootstrap name server from which to obtain remote objects on given hosts. The java.rmi.Naming class provides Uniform Resource Locator (URL) based methods to look up, bind, rebind, unbind, and list the name-object pairings maintained on a particular host and port.

Here's an example, (without exception handling) of how to bind and look up remote objects:

BankAccount acct = new BankAcctImpl();
String url = "rmi://java.Sun.COM/account";
// bind url to remote object
java.rmi.Naming.bind(url, acct);
	...
// lookup account
acct = (BankAccount)java.rmi.Naming.lookup(url);