Using Relationship Manager

Relationship Manager allows you to view and perform operations on relationship run-time data, including participants and their data. For background information about relationships, see the Map Development Guide.

You create relationship definitions with Relationship Designer Express. 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 that use the relationships start. The data is stored in the relationship tables specified in the relationship definition. Relationship Manager provides a graphical interface to interact with the relationship tables regardless of the database vendor.

For each relationship instance, Relationship Manager displays a hierarchical listing of its participant definitions and participant instances, which are a set of key and non-key attributes. The relationship tree also provides detailed information about each of the participants 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. Relationship Manager displays this instance ID at the top level of the relationship tree.

Figure 34 shows an example in Relationship Manager of a relationship tree for an identity relationship.

Figure 34. Relationship Manager, relationship tree


You can use Relationship Manager to work on entities at all levels: the relationship instance, participant instance, and attribute levels. For example, you can use Relationship Manager to:

Steps for starting Relationship Manager

Perform one of the following steps to start Relationship Manager:

Relationship Manager starts. At this point it is disconnected from the server; you must connect to an InterChange Server Express instance as described in Steps for connecting Relationship Manager to InterChange Server Express to proceed further.

Figure 35 shows Relationship Manager in a disconnected state.

Figure 35. Relationship Manager


Connecting to and disconnecting from a server

You must connect Relationship Manager to InterChange Server Express to work with relationship instances and data. Follow the instructions in the following sections to connect Relationship Manager to a server and disconnect Relationship Manager from it:

Steps for connecting Relationship Manager to InterChange Server Express

Perform the following steps to connect Relationship Manager to InterChange Server Express:

  1. Click Server > Connect. The Connect to InterChange Server dialog box appears (see Figure 36).

    Figure 36. Connect to InterChange Server Express


  2. Do one of the following to populate the name of the InterChange Server Express instance to which you want to connect in the Server Name field:
  3. Type the user name to interact with the InterChange Server Express instance in the User Name field.
  4. Type the password for the user name supplied in step 3 in the Password field.
  5. If you do not want to have to supply the user name and password each time you have to connect to the InterChange Server Express instance in System Manager then enable the Save user name and password check box.
  6. If you want to open a relationship at this time type the name of the relationship definition in the Relationship field.

    If you do not want to open a relationship at this time you can open it after connecting to the server. For more information, see Steps for opening a relationship.

  7. Click Connect.

    If you connect to InterChange Server Express in Relationship Manager and specify a relationship to open as described in step 6, then Relationship Manager displays the Retrieve Relationship Instances window, described in Steps for retrieving relationship instances.

Steps for disconnecting Relationship Manager from InterChange Server Express

Perform the following step to disconnect Relationship Manager from InterChange Server Express:

Copyright IBM Corp. 2004