UDDI user console

This topic describes the layout of the UDDI user console (also referred to as the Graphical User Interface (GUI)), which you can use to interact with the IBM WebSphere UDDI Registry.

For information about how to display the UDDI user console, see Displaying the user console.

If you will be using the UDDI console, it is recommended that you configure the appserver into which you have installed the UDDI Registry for UTF-8 encoding support: see "Configuring the UDDI User Console for multiple language encoding support".

The UDDI user console is split into three distinct areas. At the top of the screen are buttons that activate various functions in the areas below this bar. These buttons are:

Home

Returns you to the IBM WebSphere UDDI Registry welcome page

Find

Activates the Find tab on the frame below to the left

Publish

Similarly activates the Publish tab on the frame below to the left

Below the WebSphere UDDI Registry banner the screen is split into two parts. On the left are the two tabs mentioned above, the Find and Publish tabs.

Find tab

The Find tab is in two parts. At the top, a Quick Find service is provided. There are three radio buttons to enable a choice of 'service', 'business' and 'technical model' finds. Below these radio buttons is a text entry box for entering the name to search for and, beneath this, a 'Find' link to start the search. Comments are provided to show the user the wildcard character. The results of clicking on the 'Find' link are shown in the detail frame to the right.

Beneath the Quick Find is a section for Advanced Find functions which enables the user to choose which entity they want to perform an advanced search on. There are three links: Find services, Find businesses and Find technical models. Clicking one of these links displays the corresponding advanced search form in the frame to the right, which the user may use to enter search criteria. To initiate a Find, the user must first enter a search path (the % wildcard may be used) and then click the blue Add link to enter the search. Then click on the 'Find Services' (or 'Find Businesses/Find technical models) link below to initiate the Find operation.The Locator section has a link (marked in blue with the words "Show category tree") which displays the tree from which the user can select categories (or taxonomies). This is shown in the left-hand frame. In the advanced search form there are two links to start the search (mid-way down and at the bottom).

The results of clicking either of the two links to start the search are displayed in the same detail frame.

Publish tab

The Publish link on the top banner activates the Publish tab in the navigation frame to the left. The Publish tab is split into three distinct sections.

  1. Quick Publish Function

    The top part is a Quick Publish section to allow the user to publish a business or technical model by name only. There are two radio buttons to enable a choice of 'business' or 'technical model'. Below these radio buttons is a text entry box for entering the name to assign to the selected entity and, beneath this, a blue 'Publish now' link to publish the entity. The results of clicking on the Publish now link are shown in the detail frame to the right.

  2. Advanced Publish Functions

    To publish an entity with more detail, such as with multiple names, descriptions and categories, use the Advanced Publish section below this. The comments below each link ('Add a business' and 'Add a technical model') describe individual functions. Clicking one of these links displays the corresponding advanced publish form in the detail frame where the user may enter details about the entity they want to publish. As in the Advanced Find functions described above, there are two links to publish a business or technical model (one towards the top of the form and the other at the bottom). Similarly the Locator section allows taxonomies to be shown in the left frame from which the user can select categories.

    Following entry of the relevant details on the Advanced Publish section, the user must click on the Publish Business bar in order for the business to be published to the UDDI Registry.

  3. Registered Information

    Below the Advanced Publish section is a Registered Information section which has a link to Show Owned Entities in order to show the businesses, services and technical models registered to the individual user, and pending business relationships. Clicking the Show Owned Entities link displays the Show Owned Entities page in the detail frame at the right. The Show Owned Entities page is organized in three sections: Registered Businesses, Pending Business Relationships and Registered Technical Models. Each section shows the number of registered items.

    Edit and Delete Businesses

    Users can Edit or Delete businesses owned by them by clicking the appropriate links in the Actions column.

    After an Edit or Delete function has been completed, the user must click on the Update Business bar in order to publish the changes to the UDDI Registry.

    After Deleting a Business the user must confirm the deletion by clicking on the 'Delete this Business' link.

    Adding a Service to a Business

    Services are added to a business by clicking the Add a Service link in the Services column of the Registered Businesses section.

    After the Add a Service function is complete, users must click on the Publish Service bar in order to publish the service to the UDDI Registry.

    Referencing a Service from a Business

    Services can also be 'referenced' by a business as if the business was the owner of the service. This 'service projection' is performed by clicking the Reference a service link in the Services column. Services associated with a business, whether they are owned or referenced, can be displayed by clicking the Show services link. This acts as a toggle between displaying services available for editing or deleting, and hiding them.

    Adding a relationship to another Business

    A business can be associated with another business in the UDDI Registry and this function is performed by clicking the Add a relationship link in the Actions column of the Registered Businesses section. Clicking the Show related businesses link in the Actions column displays a list of any completed business relationships.

    The Pending Business Relationships section shows all incomplete publisher assertions, where only one party has asserted a relationship and is waiting for the other party to make the same assertion. This section reminds the user of any relationships that involve their businesses. Once both parties have asserted the same relationship between two businesses, the relationship moves from the Pending Business Relationships section and appears in the list of relationships displayed after clicking the Show related businesses link in the Registered Businesses section.

    Technical Models

    Technical Models owned by the user are shown in the bottom Registered Technical Models section. As for businesses, users can Edit or Delete technical models owned by them by clicking the appropriate links in the Actions column.

    Note: Users should take note that deletion of Technical Models (tModels) does not cause them to be physically deleted, but hidden. This is in accordance with the UDDI Registry V2.0 specifications. After deletion Technical Models are shown under the "Shown Owned Entities" link on the publish page but not via the Find links on the Find page. ALL other entities are deleted from the UDDI Registry in the normal way.

Example of publishing a Business, Service and tModel with the User Console

For the example, here, we will assume a business called Mondeo Cars that sells used cars

  1. Add the Business

    Click on the Publish tab in the left hand navigation frame. Then click on 'Add a business' in the Advanced Publish in the left pane. This takes you to a 'Publish Business' pane on the right. Start by adding your Business Name in the text field labelled (Mondeo Cars in this example) and select a language and then click on the blue Add link to the right. This adds the business name (but the business is not yet published - more about which is explained later). Below the Business Name is an area called Descriptions - it allows free text to be added to describe the business - if you enter anything here click on the blue Add link to the right to insert the description.

    The next section/area is the Locator area which can be used to describe the business according to what categories it falls into. This example uses a Used car dealership. Within the NAICS taxonomy (which you may view by clicking on 'Show category tree' and then expanding NAICS) this is a Retail Trade [44] entry which, on expansion, has Motor Vehicle and Parts Dealers [441] and, again on expansion, has automobile Dealers [4411] and Used Car Dealers [44112]. This fits the Business perfectly, so clicking on Used Car Dealers will enter the Key Name and Key Value into the business. For Checked Categorizations (such as NAICS) the Key name is not checked but the Key Value is checked. It should be noticed that for unchecked categorizations (such as 'other' or unspsc') the Key value is not checked either. If the locator field has been added, then the blue Add link must be clicked. The final area is Contacts, which can have names and role information added if required. Again, the blue Add link must be clicked after adding the relevant information.

    Once all the fields are filled in to the required level, the final action is to click on the Publish Business at the bottom of the form or at the top. This causes the business to be published to the UDDI Registry and a page is displayed showing the business details.

  2. Add a Service

    From the Publish tab, there is a 'Show owned entities' link. This shows the businesses owned by the current user in the Registry and the language to be used for a particular user. For Mondeo Cars, the user will see a 'Add service' button. Clicking this button shows the Publish Service form. The top part of the form is the Service Name field. After adding this name, the user must click on the blue Add link to enter the name. As in the Adding the Business form, each subsequent part must end with the blue Add link being clicked to add that part of the information to the service. The sections are (from top to bottom, Description (a free text area), Access Points (to add link points to the Service), Locator (to add references to taxonomies to the service), and Technical Models (to associate existing tModels to the Service). After completion of those areas required, clicking on the 'Publish Service' button will Publish the service to the UDDI Registry with the current form contents.

  3. Adding a new technical model

    Clicking on the 'Add a technical model' link in the left frame opens up the Publish Technical Model form on the right. A tModel can only have one name - hence the lack of a blue Add link next to the Technical Model Name field. Beneath this field are other fields - Description (a free text area to describe the technical model), Locator (to describe the technical model with taxonomies, and an Overview URL (which gives a URL pointing to an overview document, a description of the document and a Language field). For each of these fields there is a blue Add link which must be clicked to add the relevant data. At the bottom of the form is a 'Publish Technical Model' link which will create the technical model in the UDDI Registry.

    There is a Publish link at the top of the frame in each case also - after the Name section.

Related tasks
Enabling Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI)
Displaying the user console