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 provides the following information as an overview to Relationship Designer Express:
To launch Relationship Designer Express, you can do any of the following:
Result: Relationship Designer Express launches and highlights the selected relationship.
Start-->Programs-->IBM WebSphere Business Integration Express for Item Sync v4.3 -->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 the 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 are prompted to save the relationships you modified in the current project.
Figure 91
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, 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 92 shows a relationship definition list.
Figure 92. 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 93 shows the main window of Relationship Designer Express, with both the Relationship Definition list and the Participant Types window.
Figure 93. Relationship Designer Express main window
Relationship Designer Express provides the following ways to customize its main window:
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 63 describes the options of the View menu and how they affect
the appearance of the Relationship Designer Express main window.
When a menu option appears with a check mark to the left, the associated element displays. To turn off 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 display of an undisplayed element by choosing the associated menu option. In this case, the check mark appears beside the displaying element.
Relationship Designer Express supports the following portions of the main window as dockable windows:
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 Express's 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.
The File pull-down menu of Relationship Designer Express displays the
options shown in Table 64. 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 relationship definitions" |
Switch to Project... (Ctrl+S) | A submenu with a list of other projects | "Working with projects" |
Save | Saves the current relationship definition to a file | "Creating relationship definitions" |
Save All | Saves all open relationship definitions | N/A |
Add Participant Definition | Adds a new participant definition to the current relationship definition | "Creating relationship definitions" |
The Edit pull-down menu of Relationship Designer Express displays 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 "Choosing windows to display".
The Tools pull-down menu of Relationship Designer Express provides options to start each of the WebSphere business integration tools:
Relationship Designer Express provides a standard Help menu with the following options:
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. Figure 94 shows the Relationship Designer Express Standard
toolbar.
Figure 94. Relationship Designer Express Standard toolbar
The following list provides the function of each Standard toolbar button, left to right: