Defining IDL Interfaces

An IDL interface describes the functions that an object supports in a distributed application. Interface definitions provide all of the information that clients need to access the object across a network.

Consider the example of an interface that describes objects which implement bank accounts in a distributed application.

     module Finance { 
       interface Account { 
         // The account owner and balance. 
            readonly attribute string owner; 
            readonly attribute float balance; 
         // Operations available on the account. 
            void makeDeposit(in float amount, 
                             out float newBalance); 
            void makeWithdrawal(in float amount, 
            out float newBalance); 
       }; 
     }; 

The definition of interface Account includes both attributes and operations.

These are the main elements of any IDL interface definition.