Working with the UDDI Business Directories - XML

Working with a UDDI business directory involves registering the Web service with the directory. After a Web service is registered, any user can use it. However, you first need to find the required Web service in the UDDI directory. The following sections discuss the procedure for registering and finding information in the UDDI directory.

Registering a Web Service with the UDDI Business Directories

To register a Web service with a UDDI business directory, you need to perform the following steps:

1. The business organizations or the developers who create Web services provide a description of various Web services they support. This information is in the form of Technical Models, commonly called tModels, of the Web service. We will discuss tModels in detail in the later section titled "The UDDI Data Structures Document."
2. UDDI assigns a unique identification number to each tModel that is registered in the UDDI business directory. This identification number is called Unique Universal Identifier (UUID), and it is stored in the registry. UUID is then used to find information about a Web service in the UDDI directory.

Finding Information in the UDDI Business Directories

As discussed earlier, the UDDI business directories allow you to search for information about Web services. We will now discuss the procedure for finding information about a Web service in the UDDI business directories:

1. Find simple information, such as the name and contact numbers of the organization that hosts the Web service. In addition, you can find the business identification number of the organization. This information will help you query about Web services based on the business organization that hosts them. You can find this information in the White Pages of the UDDI directory.
2. Retrieve data about the classification of Web services. Web services are classified based on the type of the business organization that hosts the Web service. For example, you can find a Web service for the software export business or the garments export business. To do this, you need to find the information about the industry codes of the organization and the Web services that the organization provides. You can find this information in the Yellow Pages of the UDDI directory.
3. Register the Web service.
4. Find information about the features and working of the Web service. The features of a Web service include the Web methods that the Web service exposes and the working of the Web service. The information about how the Web service works is provided in the form of tModels.

To register or find information in the UDDI business registry, you need to interact with the registry. The UDDI Software Development Kit (SDK) allows your applications to interact with the UDDI registries.

The UDDI SDK

As discussed earlier, the UDDI SDK allows you to develop applications that can interact with the UDDI registries. You can use the UDDI SDK tools to develop programs that can interact with the registry. To use the UDDI SDK, it is not essential for you to have basic knowledge of the technologies, such as XML, SOAP, or UDDI. You can use the SDK to add registration features of a Web service to development tools, installation programs, or any other software that needs to locate and bind to the remote Web services. An example of such an SDK is Microsoft.UDDI.SDK.

To interact with the UDDI registries, the UDDI SDK provides you with three basic components. These components are discussed in the following list:

• UDDI document object. This creates a request, which is then sent to the UDDI request manager.
• UDDI request manager. This processes the request that it receives. This processed request is then sent to the UDDI business registry.
• UDDI business registry. This is located on a remote server and receives a request in the form of a SOAP message that is sent using HTTP. This SOAP message is called the SOAP RPC request object. The UDDI business registry then locates a Web service based on the request that it receives. The result of the request is then sent back to the UDDI request manager. The result is also in the form of a SOAP message, called the SOAP RPC response object. Finally, the result is forwarded to the UDDI document object.

The working of the UDDI registries is shown in Figure.

Working of the UDDI Registries.