What is WSDL ?

XML language for describing web services

Web service is described as A set of communication endpoints (ports)

Endpoint is made of two parts :

• Abstract definitions of operations and messages
• Concrete binding to networking protocol (and corresponding endpoint address) and message format

Why this separation ?

• Enhance reusability

WSDL Contents

WSDL is an XML grammar for specifying a public interface for a Web service.

This public interface can include the following :

• Information on all publicly available functions.
• Data type information for all XML messages.
• Binding information about the specific transport protocol to be used.
• Address information for locating the specified service.

WSDL Document Example

 1. Simple service providing stock quotes

 2. A single operation called "GetLastTradePrice"

 3. Deployed using SOAP 1.1 over HTTP

 4. Request takes a ticker symbol of type string

 5. Response returns price as a float