A webMethods Broker stores metadata for webMethods documents in the form of document types. The Designer uses the Broker host name and port number to connect to the Broker to import webMethods source and target metadata. The PowerCenter Integration Service integrates with webMethods Brokers to read and write webMethods documents.

webMethods Enterprise Integrator lets you define metadata for webMethods documents. The Broker stores the document metadata. When you define webMethods document metadata, specify a client group, document folder, document type, and document data field metadata. After you define document folders and types, associate them with client groups in the Enterprise Server Manager.

The

client group

controls access to document types. When you connect to a Broker to import webMethods source or target definitions, you specify a client group. The Designer displays document folders that belong to that client group.

Client groups can contain multiple

document folders

. Document folders can contain other document folders. They also contain

document types

. A document type represents the structure of the documents that belong to it. Document types contain data field names and datatypes for a webMethods document. When you import a webMethods source or target definition, select a document type. The source or target definition contains metadata that represents that document type.

The following figure shows an example of document metadata structure in a webMethods Broker:

In this example, Broker #1 is the broker name. SALES is the client group. ORDER and MANUFACTURING are examples of document folders. PARTS is an example of a document type. ACCOUNT is an example of a data field name. The datatype of the data field occurs after the data field name.