Systinet Business Service Registry 6.0

Information Storage

BSR requires a repository for workflow and subscriptions. Workflow is used to move services from the publication registry to the discovery registry. BSR ships with an embedded Hypersonic database, but can be configured to use Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2, Postgres or Sybase databases.User credentials can be stored in a database or a directory. With the former, credentials are managed through the Registry Console. The registry console also enables extension of the existing UDDI taxonomy, which includes common extensions Systinet has encountered in the field during deployments. It's simple to modify existing taxonomies or add new ones, but exposing changes in the BSR console user interface requires some development work.

I logged into the BSR console as a developer and easily cataloged existing NWC Inc. services from its .Net and Sun Java AS 8.1 platforms. A modicum of task-based navigation commands assist in publishing a service to the registry.

BSR lets you specify custom validation services to provide some quality control over published services, but you must write those validation checks yourself.

Registry RoleOnce I'd published my services to the registry I was able to submit them for approval to the registry administrator to be promoted into production. The registry administrator is likely a new role for most enterprises and requires an understanding of services and SOA frameworks. The person's primary role will be to manage the services that comprise the enterprise SOA fabric. Approval requests must include not only the service but also all dependent bindings and interfaces, which are separate entities within the BSR console. BSR does a good job of gathering dependent components and presenting them to the requester, making the task easier.

I logged in as a user with admin rights and saw the submitted request for promotion of services to the discovery registry. The workflow let me approve or reject the promotion as well as attach a note to the requester to explain the decision.

Once the services were published, I could subscribe to them. Subscriptions offer notification of any changes to the services via e-mail or through a query accessible through a hyperlink in the BSR console. I subscribed to NWC Inc.'s services as both an admin and developer, then returned to my developer role and began mucking with the service description to simulate changes.

Reusing Code

Integrating all this functionality back into the development environment for use by other developers or access by partners and customers is integral to a larger SOA implementation. I grabbed a free UDDI browser from UDDIBrowser.org and pointed it at the discovery registry and was pleased to be able to search through the registry to find services to use.This is useful because clients using UDDI require such a mechanism to discover services in order to bind to the appropriate version of the service, as well as automatically take advantage of changes to existing services. The ability to query a UDDI registry such as the BSR, bind to the appropriate service at run-time, and execute against services is ultimately what enables business agility.

Overall, Systinet's Business Service Registry 6.0 is exactly what the architect ordered to ease the pain of managing a UDDI directory of services.

Lori MacVittie is a Network Computing senior technology editor working in our Green Bay, Wis., labs. Write to her at [email protected].

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