WSDL architecture

Web Services Description Language (WSDL) files are written in eXtensible Markup Language (XML). To learn more about XML, see Web services resources.

A WSDL contains the following parts:

• Web service interface definition
  This is where the elements are contained, as well as the namespaces.

• Web service implementation
  This is where you find 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 their associated messages. PortTypes define abstract operations.

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

message

The description of parameters (input and output) 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 complex 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

Bindings describe the protocol used to access a service, as well as the data formats for the messages defined by a particular portType.

<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 remaining parts, services and ports, indicate where you can find the WSDL.

Service

Contains the Web service name and a list of the ports.

Ports

Contains the location of the Web service and the binding to used to access the service.

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