Overview of the WSRR role in SOA
The WebSphere® Service Registry and Repository (WSRR) is the master metadata repository for service descriptions.
- Traditional web services implementing WSDL interfaces with SOAP or HTTP bindings.
- A broad range of SOA services that can be described using WSDL, XSD, and WS-Policy decorations, but might use a range of protocols and be implemented according to a variety of programming models. For more information see the Related link.
As the integration point for service metadata, WSRR establishes a central point for finding and managing service metadata acquired from a number of sources, including service application deployments and other service metadata and endpoint registries and repositories, such as UDDI. WSRR is where service metadata that is scattered throughout an enterprise is brought together to provide a single, comprehensive description of a service.
When that happens, visibility is controlled, versions are managed, proposed changes are analyzed and communicated, usage is monitored, and other parts of the SOA foundation can access service metadata with the confidence that they have found the copy of record.
In this context, WSRR handles the metadata management aspects of operational services and provides the system of record for these metadata artifacts - the place where anybody looking for a catalog of all services deployed in or used by the enterprise will go first.
WSRR provides registry functions that support publication of metadata about the function, requirements and semantics of services that allow service consumers to find services or to analyze their relationships.
And it provides repository functions to store, manage and assign a version number to service metadata.
It also supports governance of service definitions. This provides the following functions:
- Control access to service metadata.
- Model lifecycle of service artifacts.
- Manage promotion of services through phases of their lifecycle in various deployment environments.
- Perform impact analysis and communicate changes to the governed service metadata.
