Create a new service definition
The service definition wizard simplifies the process of creating service definitions and is integrated into the IBM MQ Explorer. The service definition wizard is deprecated in IBM MQ Version 8.0
Before starting
Service definitions simplify the reuse of IBM MQ applications in service oriented architectures. By describing applications as services, using the same formats as traditional web services, they can be managed in the same way which promotes reuse and enabling integration with standard service tooling. The service definition wizard validates required information before producing a correctly formatted service definition, meaning we will not need to have detailed knowledge of both WSDL and the IBM MQ service definition specification which would be needed to produce service definitions manually.
Service definitions aid the cataloging and governing of IBM MQ applications by allowing the resources used by an application, such as queues and queue managers, to be easily queried and for services to be looked up dynamically at runtime. This is particularly true for customers who have unmanaged IBM MQ applications (not hosted by CICS or an Application Server, running stand-alone on Windows, UNIX, System i, or as batch mainframe applications) which have been developed over time with inconsistent documentation and no reliable inventory of applications.
We must create a service definition repository before we can define a new service definition. For more information see Adding a service definition repository
About this task
When you have created a repository in the Navigator view:
Procedure
- Right-click the repository that we want to define a new service definition in to open the menu.
- Click New > New Service Definition to open the New Service Definition wizard. As you work through the wizard, we can press F1 for context sensitive help (Ctrl + F1 on Linux installations)
Results
A new service definition is created inside the selected repository. We can create more than one service definition inside each repository.
What to do next
Service definition names must be unique within each repository, but can be reused in other repositories. Parent topic: Create and configure a service definition
Related tasks
- Delete service definitions
- Adding a service definition repository
- Delete a service definition repository