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.