The UDDI API

The UDDI API

The UDDI Programmer’s API Specification, found at http://www.uddi.org/pubs/

➥ ProgrammersAPI-V1.01-Open-20010327_2.pdf, is complete and easy to use. It’s also the authoritative source of information on the API. Therefore, it’s of little value simply to repeat the content from that document here. Instead, this section will cover the API func-tions on a descriptive level in order to provide a broad introduction to the capabilities within the API. Be sure to refer to the API Specification for complete details.

Inquiry API

The publicly available inquiry functions provided by the UDDI API fall into two categories: the find_xx group, which enables programs to find information in a UDDI reg-istry, and the get_xx group, which is used to retrieve information once it is found.

The inquiry queries are as follows:

• find_binding. Locates specific bindings within a registered businessService and returns a bindingDetail message that contains a bindingTemplate element’s structure. If there are no matches, the returned bindingDetail will be empty. If an error occurs, a dispositionReport structure will be returned in a SOAP Fault element (SOAP Fault elements are covered in Chapter 15) .

   find_business. Locates information about one or more businesses and returns a businessList message. Searches can be performed on name elements (or partial

name elements), identifierBag elements, categoryBag elements, tModelBag elements, or discoveryURL elements. tModelBag elements are collections of tModel

elements that allow searches for compatible bindings. If there are no matches, an empty businessList is returned. Errors are handled as they are with the find_binding query.

• find_service. Locates specific services within a registered businessEntity and returns a serviceList message. Searches can be performed on name elements (or partial name elements), identifierBag elements, categoryBags elements, or tModelBag elements. If there are no matches, an empty businessService structure is returned. Errors are handled as they are with the find_binding query.

• find_tModel. Locates one or more tModel information structures and returns a tModelList structure, which is a list of abbreviated information about tModel ele-ments that match the search criteria. Search parameters, no match conditions, and error conditions are handled the same as the preceding queries.

• get_bindingDetail. Gets the full runtime bindingTemplate information that can be used to make one or more service requests by invoking the API of a registered business. This query returns a bindingDetail message. It’s recommended that this query only be used when the bindingDetail that is stored in the cache is no longer valid.

   get_businessDetail. Gets the full businessEntity (identified by its businessKey) information for one or more businesses and returns a businessDetail message.

   get_businessDetailExt. Gets information about an extended businessEntity

(also identified by its businessKey) for one or more businesses and returns a businessDetailExt message.

• get_serviceDetail. Gets full details for a given businessService structure (iden-tified by its serviceKey) and returns a serviceDetail message.

   get_tModelDetail. Gets full details for a given tModel structure (identified by its tModelKey) and returns a tModelDetail message.

Publication API

The messages within the publication API fall generally into two categories: delete_xx, for deleting information from a registry, and save_xx, for inserting and updating infor-mation. In addition, there are three messages that involve the security of information within the registry.

The publication queries are as follows:

• delete_binding. Removes an existing bindingTemplate from the bindingTemplates collection that is part of a specified businessService structure. The bindingTemplate is identified by its bindingKey. If successful, a dispositionReport with a single success indicator is returned (which is the case for each of the delete_xx messages).

• delete_business. Deletes a business by deleting registered businessEntity struc-tures from the registry. The businessEntity is identified by its businessKey).

   delete_service. Deletes an existing businessService structure from the businessServices collection, which is part of a specified businessEntity. The businessService is identified by its serviceKey).

   delete_tModel. Used to delete registered information about one or more tModel

structures. If there are any references to a tModel when this call is made, the tModel will be marked as deleted, or hidden, instead of being physically removed. Hidden tModel elements can still be accessed by their owner but are not returned in search results (resulting from the find_tModel query). However, the details in a hidden tModel are still accessible, so these should be nulled out with the save_tModel call (detailed later), if the owner wishes the details to be deleted).

• discard_authToken. Informs an operator site that a previously provided authenti-cation token is no longer valid. This message is only relevant if the operator site caches the authToken elements).

• get_authToken. Requests an authentication token from an operator site (in other words, requests a login). This message is optional for operator sites that have an alternative means for handling authentication).

• get_registeredInfo. Requests a summary of the information currently managed by a given individual (returning both businessEntity and tModel keys), as identi-fied by their authentication token).

   save_binding. Registers a new bindingTemplate structure or updates an existing bindingTemplate structure within one or more bindingTemplate structures. This

call controls the information about the technical capabilities exposed by a regis-tered business).

• save_business. Registers a new businessEntity structure or updates an existing businessEntity structure. This call has a broad scope in that it controls the overall information about the entire business. The new or changed businessEntity can be passed as a parameter, or one or more URLs to such structures can be passed instead, in an uploadRegister structure).

• save_service. Adds or updates one or more businessService structures exposed by a specified businessEntity. The businessService is passed as a parameter, allowing this call to move a bindingTemplate from one businessService to another, or a businessService from one businessEntity to another).

• save_tModel. Adds or updates one or more tModel structures. The parameters to this call include either the tModel to be added or one or more URLs in an uploadRegister that each point to a single tModel structure).