Registry vs. Repository

this is good stuff Bobby. very helpful. you might think about calling out some examples to make the case, especially with so much regrep M&A going on.

Very good explanation, Bobby. Your wiki is very helpful and your blog is very resourceful.

You said "A repository stores the actual items. ... If you lose a repository, the items are gone" this really depends on the repository being used. Some allow pointers to the external artifacts and thus you do not lose the item but only the pointers and of course any metadata associated with it.The comparisons I use are:A Repository is where I discover Services during development. It manages all pre-deployment Service artifacts. Typically found on the development platform.A Registry is where I discover Services during runtime. It manages the Post-deployment information data. Typically found on the production platform.Both utilize persistent stores so back them up.

ibmsoa: Thanks for your comment. But I disagree. If the store simply points to an artifact in another store, that's a registry. Because a repository stores its items, if it's gone, the items are gone; of course, backups, replicas, etc. make it harder to completely lose the repository, but if all of those are gone, the items are gone. A store might both contain artifacts and contain pointers to artifacts in other stores; in this case, the store is acting both as a repository (for the items it stores) and a registry (for the items it references). A repository can optionally index its items for easy retrieval, in which case it acts as a registry as well.