Creating a relationship definition

Perform the following steps to create a relationship definition:

  1. Create a relationship name by doing one of the following:
  2. Name the icon for the relationship definition.

    Rule: Relationship definition names can be up to 8 characters long, can contain only letters and numbers, and must begin with a letter.

  3. Create a participant definition for each business object to be related.

    To do this, select the relationship definition name and perform one of the following actions:

  4. For each participant definition, name the icon for the participant definition.

    Rule: Participant definition names can be up to 8 characters long, can contain only letters and numbers, and must begin with a letter.

  5. Associate a data type with each participant by dragging the type from the Participant Types window onto the participant definition.

    Tip: To display the Participant Types window, select Participant Types from the View menu.

  6. For participant types that are business object definitions, add or change the attributes to associate with the participant.

    The attributes you select become the basis on which the business objects are related.

  7. Save the relationship definition by doing one of the following:
  8. Before executing a map that uses the relationship definition, perform the following steps:
    1. Activate the relationship. After the relationship is deployed to InterChange Server Express, this new relationship is not activated. However, for the Mapping API methods to be able to access the relationship tables, a relationship table must be active. To activate the relationship, click the relationship name in System Manager and select the Start option from the Component menu.
    2. Compile and deploy the map that uses the relationship.

      Result: If the map is deployed and compiled successfully in InterChange Server Express, InterChange Server Express creates the executable map code and activates the map. For more information, see "Compiling a map".

Restrictions:

  1. IBM supports creation of relationship tables only in those databases and platforms supported for the InterChange Server Express repository.
  2. If you create or make a change to a relationship definition, you must first stop the relationship through the System Manager Relationship menu, make the change to the relationship, and then restart the relationship.

Copyright IBM Corp. 2004