Overview of Relationship Designer Express

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:

Starting Relationship Designer Express

To launch Relationship Designer Express, you can do any of the following:

Important:
For Relationship Designer Express to be able to access relationships stored in System Manager, Relationship Designer Express must be connected to an instance of System Manager. The preceding steps assume that you have already started System Manager. If you have not started System Manager, see the User Guide for WebSphere Business Integration Express for Item Synchronization for more information. If System Manager is already running, Relationship Designer Express will automatically connect to it.

Working with projects

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:

  1. Select Switch to Project from the File menu.
  2. Select the name of the project in the Switch to Project submenu.

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.

Figure 91. 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.

Layout of Relationship Designer Express

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

Customizing the main window

Relationship Designer Express provides the following ways to customize its main window:

Choosing windows to display

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.

Table 63.
View menu options for main window customization
View menu option Element displayed
Participant Types The Participant Types window displays
Toolbar The Standard toolbar, which provides the main functionality for Relationship Designer Express
Status Bar A single-line pane in which Relationship Designer Express displays status information

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.

Floating a dockable window

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.

Using the Relationship Designer Express functionality

You can access Relationship Designer Express's functionality using any of the following:

Main menus of Relationship Designer Express

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.

Functions of the File menu

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.

Table 64.
File menu options in Relationship Designer Express
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"

Functions of the Edit menu

The Edit pull-down menu of Relationship Designer Express displays the following options:

Functions of the View menu

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".

Tools menu functions

The Tools pull-down menu of Relationship Designer Express provides options to start each of the WebSphere business integration tools:

Help Menu functions

Relationship Designer Express provides a standard Help menu with the following options:

Note:
A Context menu provides shortcuts to useful commands and is available by right-clicking. Its options change depending on where you click

Relationship Designer Express toolbar

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:

Copyright IBM Corp. 1997, 2003