Understanding WSDL documents

A Web Service Description Language (WSDL) file describes a Web service.

A WSDL file describes the following data:

Using a WSDL file, you can locate a web service and invoke any of its available functions.

What happens when a WSDL file is imported

A WSDL file can be imported to your project. This data gets embedded into your system as top-level objects. Consider the following example, which assumes you have imported an AddressBook.wsdl file. The contents are as shown below:

<?xml version="1.0" ?>

<definitions name="urn:AddressFetcher"
	targetNamespace="urn:AddressFetcher2"
	xmlns:tns="urn:AddressFetcher2"
	xmlns:typens="urn:AddressFetcher2"
	xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/1999/XMLSchema"
	xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap/"
	xmlns="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/">

<!-- PORT TYPE DECLARATION -->

<portType name="AddressBook">

	<operation name="addEntry">
		<input message="tns:AddEntryRequest"/>
		<output message="tns:empty"/>
	</operation>

	<operation name="getAddressFromName">
		<input message="tns:GetAddressFromNameRequest"/>
		<output message="tns:GetAddressFromNameResponse"/>
	</operation>

</portType>

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
<service name="AddressBookService">
<PORT ELEMENT DECLARATION-->
	<port name="AddressBook" binding="tns:AddressBookSOAPBinding">
	<soap:address location="http://localhost:8080/axis/services/AddressBook"/>
</port>
</service>
</definitions>
The following top level objects are generated when you finish importing a WSDL file:
  • Interfaces are created for all the selected WSDL Port Types corresponding to the portType elements contained in the WSDL document.
  • Endpoints are created for all the selected WSDL ports corresponding to the port elements in the WSDL document .
Related concepts
Configuring a WSRR connection
Creating a new endpoint for the WSRR
Modifying an existing endpoint for the WSRR
Understanding the WSRR editor
Testing an existing WSRR endpoint query