IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Administer applications and processes in the runtime environment > Manage relationships
The relationship manager
The relationship manager is a tool for manually controlling and manipulating relationship data to correct errors found in automated relationship management or provide more complete relationship information. In particular, it provides a facility for retrieving and modifying relationship instance data.
What is the relationship manager?
The relationship manager allows you to configure, query, view, and perform operations on relationship runtime data, including roles and their data. You create relationship definitions with the relationship editor. At run time, instances of the relationships are populated with the data that associates information from different applications. This relationship instance data is created when the maps or other IBM BPM components run and need a relationship instance. The relationship service exposes a set of application programming interfaces (API's) to retrieve relationship metadata and to create, retrieve, and manipulate the instance data. The data is stored in the relationship tables that are specified in the relationship definition. The relationship manager provides a graphical user interface to interact with the relationships and relationship instances.
For each relationship instance, the relationship manager can display a hierarchical listing of its roles. Each role in the relationship has instance data, properties, and key attributes. The relationship tree also provides detailed information about each of the roles in the relationship instance, such as the type of entity, its value, and the date it was last modified. A relationship instance ID is automatically generated when the relationship instance is saved in the relationship table. The relationship manager displays this instance ID at the top level of the relationship tree.
Use the relationship manager
You can use the relationship manager to manage entities at all levels: the relationship instance, role instance, and attribute data and property data levels.
For example, you can use the relationship manager to:
- Browse and inspect the values for existing relationships
- Create and delete relationship instances
- Modify the contents of a relationship instance, such as adding and deleting role instances
- Edit the data of a relationship role instance, including role properties and logical state
- Roll back relationship instance data
- Activate and deactivate role instances
- Get role instances, given the key attribute, start and end date, and property value
- Export an existing static relationship instance (from one platform) to an RI or CSV file, then use the relationship manager to import the RI or CSV file into a new environment (a different platform from the first)
- Recover from problems if they occur.
For example, when corrupted or inconsistent data from a source application has been sent to the generic and destination application relationship table, you can use the relationship manager to rollback the data to a point in time when you know the data is reliable
For more information about performing these tasks, see the relationship manager online help.
Displaying the relationship manager
Display the relationship manager in the administrative console, by clicking Integration Applications > Relationship Manager. From there, click Relationships to view a list of relationships in the system, including the relationship name, display name, and static and identity attributes. You can also view detailed information for a selected role, including the relationship name, role name, display name, property values, keys, role object type, and managed attribute setting.