What is WSDL?

WSDL stands for Web Services Description Language
WSDL is written in XML
WSDL is an XML document
WSDL is used to describe Web services
WSDL is also used to locate Web services
WSDL is a W3C recommendation

The main structure of a WSDL document looks like this:




definition of types........



definition of a message....



definition of a port.......



definition of a binding....




WSDL Ports
The element is the most important WSDL element.
It describes a web service, the operations that can be performed, and the messages that are involved.
The element can be compared to a function library (or a module, or a class) in a traditional programming language.

WSDL Messages
The element defines the data elements of an operation.
Each message can consist of one or more parts. The parts can be compared to the parameters of a function call in a traditional programming language.

WSDL Types
The element defines the data types that are used by the web service.
For maximum platform neutrality, WSDL uses XML Schema syntax to define data types.

WSDL Bindings
The element defines the message format and protocol details for each port.

WSDL Example
This is a simplified fraction of a WSDL document: