Introduction to UDDI Services
In order to get the most out of this introduction to the basic concepts in UDDI Services, it is strongly recommended that you first become familiar with Web services, Web service interfaces, and the services you are describing. For more information, see Additional Resources on the UDDI Services page on the Microsoft Web site.
Jump to: What is UDDI?, Understanding UDDI Services Entities and Organization, UDDI Services Roles.
What is UDDI?
Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) is an industry specification for publishing and locating information about Web services. It defines an information framework that enables you to describe and classify your organization, its services, and the technical details about the interfaces of the Web services you expose. The framework also enables you to consistently discover services, or interfaces of a particular type, classification, or function. UDDI also defines a set of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that can be used by applications and services to interact with UDDI data directly. For example, you can develop services that publish and update their UDDI data automatically, react dynamically to service availability, or automatically discover interface details for other services with which they interact.
The UDDI.org consortium of companies established the UDDI Business Registry (UBR) where companies and organizations can share and discover Web services. This public registry is maintained and replicated by its managing body, the UBR Operator Council, and should not be confused with UDDI Services, which is deployed and maintained by your enterprise or organization.
Understanding UDDI Services Entities and Organization
UDDI Services provides UDDI capabilities for use within an enterprise or between business partners. It includes a Web interface with searching, publishing, and coordination features that are compatible with Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0 or later and Netscape Navigator 4.5, or later. UDDI Services supports the UDDI version 1.0 and 2.0 APIs, enabling enterprise developers to publish, discover, share, and interact with Web services directly through their development tools and business applications.
Organizations and the products and services they provide are represented by the following entities in UDDI Services.
 Provider 
 Contact
 Service
 Binding
 Instance Info |
The following definitions describe each entity and its role in relation to other entities.
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UDDI Services Roles
UDDI Services contains four roles that define the level of interaction that each user is allowed.
Your user name and role are displayed in the upper-right corner of the UDDI Services Web interface.
What’s Next
Now that you have reviewed entities, roles, and relationships in UDDI Services, you are ready to begin querying, publishing, or coordinating Web service information. For an overview on locating or publishing data, see Introduction to Searching or Introduction to Publishing.