Browse pattern for the UDDI registry

 

Software that people use to explore and examine data, especially hierarchical data, requires browse capabilities. The browse pattern characteristically involves starting with some broad information, performing a search, finding general result sets, then selecting more specific information for drill-down patterns.

The UDDI API specifications accommodate the browse pattern with the find_xx API calls. These calls form the search capabilities that the API provides. The calls are matched with summary return messages that return overview information about the registered information that is associated with the inquiry message type and the search criteria specified in the inquiry.

A typical browse sequence might involve finding whether there is any information registered for a business you know about. This sequence starts with a call to find_business, perhaps passing the first characters of the business name that you know. This action returns a businessList result. This result is overview information, including keys, names, and descriptions, that is derived from the registered businessEntity information, matching on the name fragment that you provide. If the business you are looking for is in this list, you can use the find_service API call to drill down into the corresponding businessService information, and look for specific technical models, such as purchasing or shipping. Similarly, if you know the technical fingerprint (tModel signature) of a particular software interface, and you want to see if the business you are looking for provides a Web service that supports that interface, you can use the find_binding inquiry message.

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Related tasks

UDDI registry client programming

 

Related Reference

UDDI registry Application Programming Interface

 

Reference topic