2002-07-26 - 5 Reasons Why I Love the New MS UDDI User Interface

Visiting the v2 Microsoft node of the UBR or installing UDDI Services in RC1, one will discover a new user interface to UDDI. While it may take awhile to get used to (as all new things do), there is a lot to excited about. Here's a list of 5 things I really like about it.

1. The ability to run more complex queries. Now you can pile on a multiplicity of keyedReferences to a categoryBag, identifierBag or tModelBag through the UI. Moreover, you can do this on a provider, service or tModel. This new feature allows for much more complex queries to be issued.
2. The treeview on the left side navigation of publish. This treeview perfectly encapsulates the containment model implicit in the UDDI data model. It makes publication much more intuitive.
3. Right-click functionality on the treeview. Try it! While in publish mode, you can right click on any entity in the treeview and perform actions. Very cool.
4. The tabs. A single UDDI entry can get complex pretty quickly. The tabs keep the information consolidated so that all necessary information is on one page.
5. The icons for tModel and tModelInstanceInfo. Careful observers will note that the icon for tModel looks like a space age UML lollipop and the icon for tModelInstanceInfo is a pointer to the lollipop, signifying an implementation of that interface.

Overall, the new UI is a great example of an ASP.NET web application. The development team took advantage of many features in ASP.NET and the final result rocks.