MENU


WSDL

The Web Services Description Language (WSDL) defines the functionalities offered by a web service. It is often used together with SOAP and XSD.

A WSDL file can be read by a client program to find out what operations are available on the server. Any special datatypes used are embedded in the form of XSD. SOAP can then be used to call one of the operations over HTTP. 

<definitions name="HelloService"
   targetNamespace="http://www.examples.com/wsdl/HelloService.wsdl"
   xmlns="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/"
   xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap/"
   xmlns:tns="http://www.examples.com/wsdl/HelloService.wsdl"
   xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">

   <message name="SayHelloRequest">
      <part name="firstName" type="xsd:string"/>
   </message>
   <message name="SayHelloResponse">
      <part name="greeting" type="xsd:string"/>
   </message>
   <portType name="Hello_PortType">
      <operation name="sayHello">
         <input message="tns:SayHelloRequest"/>
         <output message="tns:SayHelloResponse"/>
      </operation>
   </portType>
   <binding name="Hello_Binding" type="tns:Hello_PortType">
   <soap:binding style="rpc"
      transport="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/http"/>
   <operation name="sayHello">
      <soap:operation soapAction="sayHello"/>
      <input>
         <soap:body encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"
            namespace="urn:examples:helloservice"
            use="encoded"/>
      </input>
      <output>
         <soap:body encodingStyle="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/encoding/"
            namespace="urn:examples:helloservice"
            use="encoded"/>
      </output>
   </operation>
   </binding>
   <service name="Hello_Service">
      <documentation>WSDL File for HelloService</documentation>
      <port binding="tns:Hello_Binding" name="Hello_Port"/>
         <soap:address
            location="http://www.examples.com/SayHello/">
      </port>
   </service>
</definitions>

Example adapted from http://www.tutorialspoint.com/wsdl/wsdl_example.htm.