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An Association Type is a logical definition of a relationship. An association type enables you to define a relationship between an asset of one type and an asset of another type and/or to any other object defined in CentraSite. The association type represents the relationship as a forward label or reverse label. An association type can be used by the relationship attribute defined within an asset's profile. For example, if you have an Association Type called "Uses", you can define a Relationship attribute with this association type "Uses" for a Service asset. You can use that attribute to link the Service asset to other Services in the catalog, to assets of other types (such as XML schemas) and/or to other registry objects (such as Organizations, Policies). For an Asset Type, when you define a relationship attribute using this Association Type it appears as a attribute on the asset's detail page in the CentraSite Control.

One association type can be used by many asset types. For example, the "Has Parent" association type, which is one of the predefined association types installed with CentraSite, provides parent-child relationship information about an asset and the related to object, and is used by both the Service asset type and the XML schema asset type.

• Who Can Create and Manage Association Types?

• Adding an Association Type

• Editing the Properties of an Association Type

• Deleting an Association Type

Who Can Create and Manage Association Types?

To create custom association types, you must belong to a role that has the "Manage Asset Types" permission. Besides allowing you to create custom association types, this permission allows you to edit and delete any user-defined association type. Additionally, it allows you to edit certain predefined association types installed by CentraSite. By default, users in the CentraSite Administrator and Asset Type Administrator roles have this permission, although an administrator can grant this permission to other roles.

For more information about permissions, see About Roles and Permissions in the document Users, Groups, Roles and Permissions.

Adding an Association Type

You use the following procedure to define a new association type.

To define a new association type

1. In CentraSite Control, go to Administration > Types. Click the Association Types tab.

2. Click Add Association Type.

3. In the Add Association Type dialog box, specify the following properties:

   In this field...	Do the following...
   Name	Enter a name for the association type. Be aware that this is the name that will be given to attributes that use this association type. Therefore, the name should be meaningful when used as an attribute name. For example, use an association name such as "Developed By", not "developer association". An association name does not need to be unique within the CentraSite registry. However, to reduce ambiguity, you should avoid giving multiple associations the same name. An association name can contain any character (including spaces).
   Forward Label	Specify the relationship of the source asset (the one in which the "Relationship" attribute resides) to one or more specified targets. If you are not specifying a name for the forward label, then CentraSite will treat the association type name as the forward label.
   Reverse Label	Optional. Specify the relationship of the specified targets to the source asset.

4. When you finish setting the association type's properties, click OK.

Editing the Properties of an Association Type

When you attempt to modify an association type, keep the following points in mind:

• You can modify the association type's name at any time.

• You can modify an association type for relationship properties only if there is no relationship attribute defined with it in the catalog. After a association type has been assigned to an attribute, it can no longer be edited.

To modify an association type

1. In CentraSite Control, go to Administration > Types.

2. In the Association Types tab, select the association type's link that you want to modify.

3. Examine or modify the properties on the Edit Association Type dialog box as required.

4. Click OK.

Deleting an Association Type

When you attempt to delete an association type, keep the following points in mind:

• You cannot delete the association types that CentraSite provides out-of-the-box (not even if you belong to a role with the "Manage Asset Types" permission).

• You can delete an association type only if there is no relationship attribute defined with it in the catalog. After a association type has been assigned to a relationship attribute, it can no longer be deleted.

• You cannot delete the stand-alone association type that is in use for defining an association in the catalog.

To delete an association type

1. In the CentraSite Control, go to Administration > Types.

2. Go to the Association Types tab.

3. Enable the checkbox next to the name of an association type that you want to delete.

4. Click Delete.

   When you are prompted to confirm the delete operation, click OK.

You can delete multiple association types in a single step. The rules described above for deleting a single association type apply also when deleting multiple association types.

Important:
If you have selected several association types, you can use the Delete button to delete the types. However, you are not allowed to delete types for which you do not have the required permission.

To delete multiple association types in a single operation

1. In CentraSite Control, go to Administration > Types.

2. Go to the Association Types tab.

3. Mark the checkboxes of the types that you want to delete.

4. From the Actions menu, choose Delete.

   When you are prompted to confirm the delete operation, click OK.

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