WSDL architecture

Web Services Description Language (WSDL) files are written in Extensible Markup Language (XML). To learn more about XML, see Web services: Resources for learning.

The following is the structure of the information in a WSDL file: A WSDL file contains the following parts:

• Web service interface definition

  This is part contains the elements, as well as the namespaces.

• Web service implementation

  This part contains the definition of the service and ports.

A WSDL file describes a Web service with the following elements:

portType

The description of the operations and associated messages. The portType element defines abstract operations.

<portType name="EightBall">
 <operation name="getAnswer">
  <input message="ebs:IngetAnswerRequest"/>
  <output message="ebs:OutgetAnswerResponse"/>
 </operation>
</portType>

message

The description of input and output parameters and return values.

<message name="IngetAnswerRequest">
 <part name="meth1_inType" type="ebs:questionType"/>
</message>
<message name="OutgetAnswerResponse">
 <part name="meth1_outType" type="ebs:answerType"/>
</message>
  

types

The schema for describing XML types used in the messages.

<types>
 <xsd:schema targetNamespace="...">
  <xsd:complexType name="questionType">
   <xsd:element name="question" type="string"/>
  </xsd:complexType>
  <xsd:complexType name="answerType">
  ...
</types>

binding

The bindings describe the protocol that is used to access a portType, as well as the data formats for the messages that are defined by a particular portType element.

<binding name="EightBallBinding" type="ebs:EightBall">
 <soap:binding style="rpc" transport="schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/http">
 <operation name="ebs:getAnswer">
 <soap:operation soapAction="urn:EightBall"/>
  <input>
   <soap:body namespace="urn:EightBall" ... />
  ...

The services and ports define the location of the Web service.

ServiceThe service contains the Web service name and a list of ports.

PortsThe ports contain the location of the Web service and the binding used for service access.

<service name="EightBall">
 <port binding="ebs:EightBallBinding" name="EightBallPort">
  <soap:address location="localhost:8080/axis/EightBall"/>
 </port>
</service>
 

Related concepts
WSDL

Related tasks
Developing a WSDL file
Publishing WSDL files

Related reference
WSDL architecture