Relationship Designer 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:
To launch Relationship Designer, do one of the following:
Result: Relationship Designer launches and highlights the selected relationship.
Start > Programs > IBM WebSphere InterChange Server > Toolset > Development > Relationship Designer
System Manager is the only tool that interacts with the server. It imports and exports entities (relationships, maps) between InterChange Server and System Manager projects. Various tools, such as Relationship Designer, 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, 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 112
shows the Switch to Project option for browsing a project.
Figure 112. Browsing a project
When Relationship Designer 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, System Manager notifies Relationship Designer, which dynamically updates the list of business object definitions.
In the Relationship Designer 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 113 shows a relationship definition list.
Figure 113. 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 114 shows the main window of Relationship Designer, with both
the Relationship Definition list and the Participant Types window.
Figure 114. Relationship Designer main window
Relationship Designer allows you to customize its main window by:
When you first open Relationship Designer, 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 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 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 Relationship Designer's functionality using any of the following:
Relationship Designer 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.
The File pull-down menu of Relationship Designer 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 provides the following options:
The View pull-down menu of Relationship Designer displays the following options:
For information on the View menu options that control display, see "Selecting windows to display".
The Tools pull-down menu of Relationship Designer provides options to start each of the WebSphere InterChange Server tools:
Relationship Designer provides a standard Help menu with the following options:
The 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 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 115 shows the Relationship Designer Standard toolbar.
Figure 115. Relationship Designer Standard toolbar
The following list provides the function of each Standard toolbar button, left to right: