Relationship Designer Express is a graphical development tool for creating and modifying relationship definitions. A relationship definition establishes an association between two or more participants. You create a relationship definition by specifying the participants in the relationship and defining the data source and other properties associated with each participant.
This section covers the following topics to introduce you to Relationship Designer Express:
To launch Relationship Designer Express, do one of the following:
Result:Relationship Designer Express launches and highlights the selected relationship.
Start > Programs > IBM WebSphere Business Integration Server Express
> Toolset Express > Development > Relationship
Designer Express
System Manager is the only tool that interacts with the server. It imports and exports entities (relationships, maps) between InterChange Server Express and System Manager projects. Various tools, such as Relationship Designer Express, connect to System Manager and view, edit, and modify these entities on a project basis.
A project is simply a logical grouping of entities for managing and deployment purposes. Once entities are deployed to InterChange Server Express, the project they originated from no longer has any meaning.
System Manager allows you to create multiple projects. Before you can work on a relationship, you must select which project the relationship is in.
To select a project to work with, perform the following steps:
Result: You can now work with the relationships in that project. Before you can switch to yet another project, you need to save the relationships you modified in the current project.
Figure 113 shows the Switch to Project option for browsing a project.
When Relationship Designer Express establishes a connection to System Manager, it obtains a list of business objects that are defined in the current project. This list assists you with defining participants.
If you add or delete a business object using Business Object Designer Express, System Manager notifies Relationship Designer Express, which dynamically updates the list of business object definitions.
In the Relationship Designer Express window, a list of relationship definitions stored in the current project appears on the left side. In this relationship definition list, the contents of each relationship definition appear in a hierarchical format similar to the Windows Explorer. You can expand the relationship name by clicking on the plus symbol (+) beside its name to see a list of its participant definitions, participant types, and associated attributes. Figure 114 shows a relationship definition list.
The Participant Types window shows a list of available data types in the current project that you can associate with a participant.
Figure 115 shows the main window of Relationship Designer Express, with both the Relationship Definition list and the Participant Types window.
Relationship Designer Express allows you to customize its main window by:
When you first open Relationship Designer Express, only the relationship definition list displays in the main window. The Participant Types window does not display. You can customize the appearance of the main window with options from the View pull-down menu. Table 82 describes the options of the View menu and how they affect the appearance of the Relationship Designer Express main window.
Tip: When a menu option appears with a check mark to the left, the associated element displays. To turn off the display of the element, select the associated menu option. The check mark disappears to indicate that the element does not currently display. Conversely, you can turn on the display of an undisplayed element by selecting the associated menu option. In this case, the check mark appears beside the displaying element.
Relationship Designer Express supports the following features of the main window as dockable windows:
Tip: By default, a dockable window is usually placed along the edge of the main window and moves as part of the main window. When you float a dockable window, you detach it from the main window, allowing it to function as an independent window. To float a dockable window, hold down the left mouse button, grab the border of the window and drag it onto the main window or desktop.
You can access the Relationship Designer Express functionality using any of the following:
Relationship Designer Express provides the following pull-down menus:
The following sections describe the options of each of these menus. Keyboard shortcuts are available for some of these options, as indicated.
Functions of the File menuThe File pull-down menu of Relationship Designer Express provides the options shown in Table 83. Except for the Switch to Project option, all File menu options affect objects in the current project.
File menu option | Description | For more information |
---|---|---|
New (Ctrl+N) | Creates a new relationship definition | Creating a relationship definition |
Switch to Project (Ctrl+S) | Lists other projects | Working with projects |
Save | Saves the current relationship definition to a file | Creating a relationship definition |
Save All | Saves all open relationship definitions | N/A |
Add Participant Definition | Adds a new participant definition to the current relationship definition | Creating a relationship definition |
The Edit pull-down menu of Relationship Designer Express provides the following options:
The View pull-down menu of Relationship Designer Express displays the following options:
For information on the View menu options that control display, see Selecting windows to display.
Tools menu functionsThe Tools pull-down menu of Relationship Designer Express provides options to start each of the InterChange Server Express tools:
Restriction: This tool is only available in WebSphere Business Integration Server Express Plus.
Relationship Designer Express provides a standard Help menu with the following options:
Context menuThe Context menu is a shortcut menu that is available, by right-clicking from numerous places. A menu opens that contains useful commands, which change depending on the location you click.
Relationship Designer Express provides a Standard toolbar for common tasks you need to perform. This toolbar is dockable; that is, you can detach it from the palette of the main window and float it over the main window or the desktop.
Tip: To identify the purpose of each toolbar button, roll over each button with your mouse cursor.
Figure 116 shows the Relationship Designer Express Standard toolbar.
The following list provides the function of each Standard toolbar button, left to right: