Accessing Information in a UDDI Registry
In this section, you will examine how information in a UDDI registry can be accessed from Java.
NOTE
The subject of accessing, updating, and searching UDDI-based registries would fill a book in itself. This section is intended to give you a head start in using a UDDI-based registry rather than showing you all the nuts and bolts required.
As a Java developer, you do not really want to have to build SOAP messages to communicate with a UDDI registry. What you want is a Java-based API that hides away the SOAP manipulation. There are various alternatives, including
UDDI4J and UDDI4J-WSDL— IBM's Java implementation of the UDDI API
JAXR— The Java API for XML Registries developed through the JCP
Because this is a book about J2EE and JAXR is included in J2EE, the rest of this chapter concentrates on the use of JAXR.
Choosing a Registry to Query
Before you start manipulating data in a registry, you must choose which registry you will use:
A public production registry— This is a “live” business registry, such as those hosted by IBM and Microsoft. You should only manipulate “real” business data in these registries. You can search such a registry freely, but if you want to publish data, you will be required to obtain a login and password.
A public test registry— This is a generally available resource for testing the registration and discovery of Web Services. As with production registries, public test registries are hosted by IBM and Microsoft. If you want to publish data about your test services, you will be required to obtain a login and password.
A locally hosted registry— There are several UDDI registries available that you can configure in your own environment (IBM's downloadable UDDI registry and jUDDI are two examples). These registries can be used internally within your company for Web Service discovery and testing.