COID framework server manages C++ classes whose declaration was decorated in minimally obtrusive way by special keywords, that make it possible to perform lookup, versioning and remote object access services atop the ordinary C++ classes. The coidgen tool generates client class and server side dispatch .cpp file required for the versioning and remote access. The framework server uses information registered in the dispatch file to feed the lookup and versioning handlers. The server automatically estabilishes optimal connection mode for client. If the client comes from the same process where the required service runs or is to be created, the COID server creates vtable that is used by the client to call methods in the same way as it would call virtual methods in a ordinary C++ class. If the client is remote, the client class is hooked through netstream specialization of abstract binstream class to the server-side dispatcher of the class, that was generated automatically by the coidgen tool.

COID framework server is implemented in dynamically loaded library libcoidserver. After reading its configuration file dev.conf it loads .dev libraries found in subdirectories of ./device directory.

The .dev files are normal dynamically linked libraries that export specific method used to get list of COID-extended classes, called services, that the device (the .dev file) implements, and that will be served by the COID framework server. The device may contain several different services, usually chunked together into the device because they tightly cooperate.

In addition to these external services, the libcoidserver library looks for services contained in itself, and for services contained in the current process. This means that you can link the libcoidserver library with your executable and have served your COID-extended classes automatically.

The libcoidserver library itself contains several core services used internally throughout the framework, some of them can be connected remotely or are used by other external services, such as the remote console service. These services are used in direct mode within the server, what means that there's just as much overhead in calling their methods as it's in calling virtual C++ methods. These services are:

• accountmgr service - manages accounts and provides services for authentication of clients and getting access mode flags. These are used to build direct and remote interfaces for particular access mode.
• logentmgr service - manages framework server log, allows for other services to retrieve log entries using filters
• tunnelmgr service - provides means to tunnel the object communication through http
• cmdin service - this is not actually an ordinary service (yet), but it's a virtual class that is used by the objects runing on the server. Through the cmdin interface the objects request specific services from the framework server. In the near future this service becomes an ordinary service accessible in direct mode only, without any additional overhead involved. You can read more about methods in the cmdin service here.
  

see coid server documentation