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ASN.1/Java Runtime Package Overview

Applies to: ASN.1/Java 7.1

Contents

Overview

The OSS runtime package includes the following:

  • The ASN.1/Java universal classes
  • A Java package (created by the ASN.1 Java compiler). Its name is derived from the name of the last input .asn file or the name specified with the -output option.

Here are some of the features available with the runtime package:

  • Printing of ASN.1 values
  • Implementing coding services for BER, CER, DER, JSON, OER, C-OER, PER, XER, CXER, E-XER, encoding rules
  • Constraint checking

For information about individual classes, see the OSS TOED API or OSS SOED API section.

The runtime library classes in the .jar files in the lib directory of the OSS ASN.1 Tools for Java installation folder are different. The library used at runtime must match the Java class generating option that was specified while running ASN.1 compiler, as follows:

Command-line option Class library file
-soed (default) oss.jar
-soed (default) -lean osslean.jar
-toed osstoed.jar

Limitations

Encoding Rules Limitations
DER There is no support for encoding a SET OF type with a ValueInFile directive (HugeSetOf).
CER There is no support for the ValueInFile compiler directive.
JSON There is no support for:
  • The ValueInFile compiler directive with the TOED runtime.
  • The ValueInFile compiler directive for types other than SET OF and SEQUENCE OF with the SOED runtime.
  • The DeferDecoding compiler directive.
  • Tracing with the TOED runtime.
  • Relay-safe encoding/decoding with the TOED runtime.
OER/C-OER There is no trace support for the OERCoder/COERCoder with the TOED runtime.

Strict constraint validation is not available with the TOED runtime. The OER/C-OER TOED does only basic checks of the values that are passed to the encoder. For integer types, the encoder ensures that the value fits the number of octets computed from the subtype constraints. For restricted KMC character strings, BIT STRINGs and OCTET STRINGs that are constrained to a fixed size, the encoder ensures that the length of the value matches the fixed size.

The OER/C-OER TOED provides limited support for automatic coding of BIT STRINGs and OCTET STRINGs with contents constraint. Automatic coding is supported only when a contents constraint omits the ENCODED BY clause.

The following compiler directives are not supported:
  • ASN1.DeferDecoding
  • ASN1.ValueInFile
  • OSS.Truncate
PER There is no support for the DeferDecoding compiler directive.
XER There is no support for:

  • The ValueInFile compiler directive.
  • The DeferDecoding compiler directive.
  • The -nodebug compiler option.
E-XER There is no support for:
  • The -lean compiler option or the Lean Encoder/Decoder.
  • BIT STRING and OCTET STRING types with a CONTAINING clause.
  • The -relaySafe compiler option.
  • The -nodebug compiler option.
  • The ValueInFile compiler directive.
  • The DeferDecoding compiler directive.
  • Tracing with the EXERCoder.
The features mentioned above are not allowed at runtime. If you are interested in any of these features for E-XER, contact Sales <info@oss.com>.
Other limitations

In some cases, the ASN.1 compiler generates a huge amount of Java code, which might cause the Java compiler to report a code too large error. The error can occur in the following situations:

  • For deeply nested type definitions that cause a code too large error on metadata (typeinfo) constructor calls.
  • Fo initialized value constructor calls when many deeply nested values are used.
  • In sample code generated for huge type definitions.
  • In ASN.1 modules with a large number (over 2000) of defined types and the -jiaapi option is used.
  • When initializing a large number of named items of ENUMERATED types, INTEGERs with named numbers, or BIT STRINGs with named bits.
To avoid the error in the first three cases, the huge initializers can be split into smaller parts by using the -splittypeinfo or -splitvalues compiler option, and the huge sample code can be split with the -splitsamplecode option. For ENUMERATED types, INTEGERs with named numbers, or BIT STRINGs with named bits, use the -splitBigEnums or -limitBigEnums option.

SOED versus TOED

The following table summarizes the important differences between SOED and TOED.

Feature SOED TOED
Command-line options

The following command-line options are ignored:

  • -cer, -exer
  • -dtd
  • -indexinfoobjectsets
  • -jiaapi
  • -lean
  • -paramtypesuperclass
  • -sampleCode
  • -splitsamplecode
  • -splittypeinfo
  • -userconstraints
  • -xsl
Directives

The following directives are ignored:

  • ASN1.ConstraintFunction
  • ASN1.DeferDecoding
  • ASN1.ValueInFile, OSS.NOCOPY, OSS.OBJHANDLE
  • OSS.DTD
  • OSS.ENCODABLE
  • OSS.NODEFAULTVALUE (specified with -oer | -coer)
  • OSS.SampleCode
  • OSS.Stylesheet
Runtime Packages

The UNSIGNED class is not present in the SOED com.oss.asn1 package.

The following interfaces are not present in the SOED com.oss.asn1 package:

  • ASN1Type
  • UniqueKey

Generic applications that rely on using the JIA API are not compatible with the TOED runtime.

The TOED runtime currently provides support for BER, DER, JSON, OER, C-OER, PER Aligned, PER Unaligned, XER, and CXER.

The following classes are not present in the TOED com.oss.asn1 package:

  • All classes with the "Huge" prefix, except HugeInteger
  • ASN1Type
  • AbstractDataPositions
  • AbstractDataWithPositions
  • CERCoder
  • EXERCoder
  • Position
  • XERDocument

The following interfaces are not present in the TOED com.oss.asn1 package:

  • ByteStorage
  • CharStorage
  • ExternalChecker
  • HugeRelaySafe
  • Index
  • IndexProcedure
  • ObjectReader
  • ObjectStorage
  • ObjectWriter
  • Printable
  • Storage
  • StorageManager
  • XERCoderInterface

The following classes are not present in the TOED com.oss.util package:

  • ASN1ObjidIriFormat
  • ASN1PrintWriter
  • CompressOutputStream
  • DecompressInputStream
  • SampleUtil

The com.oss.storage package is not present in the TOED runtime.

The com.oss.metadata package is reduced and is intended only for internal use in the TOED runtime.
Java Representations

The following ASN.1 types are represented differently when compiled for the TOED runtime:

  • Constrained INTEGER types that can be represented with unsigned 64-bit integers are represented by the com.oss.asn1.UNSIGNED class.
  • SEQUENCE or SET components are represented by public instance variables.
  • SEQENCE OF or SET OF components are represented by a public ArrayList variable.
Coding Services

The following coding services are not available with the TOED runtime:

  • CER and E-XER coders
  • Decoding with positions
  • Deferred decoding
  • Partially decoded PDUs
  • Strict decoding
  • Storage management for huge values
  • JIA API

Version Information

The JSON encoding rules are supported in the SOED runtime in version 7.0 and later.

This documentation applies to the OSS® ASN.1 Tools for Java release 7.1 and later.

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