Browse pattern for the UDDI Registry

 

Software that allows people 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 and then selecting more specific information for drill-down.

The UDDI API specifications accommodate the browse pattern by way of the find_xx API calls. These calls form the search capabilities provided by the API and 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 a particular business you know about has any information registered. This sequence would start with a call to find_business, perhaps passing the first few characters of a business name that you already know. This returns a businessList result. This result is overview information (keys, names and descriptions) derived from the registered businessEntity information, matching on the name fragment that you provided. If you spot the business you are looking for within this list, one can drill down into the corresponding businessService information, looking for particular technical models (for example purchasing, shipping, and so on) using the find_service API call. Similarly, if you know the technical fingerprint (tModel signature) of a particular software interface and want to see if the business you have chosen provides a Web service that supports that interface, use the find_binding inquiry message.