The WSDL

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

WSDL - stands for Web Service Description Language
XML Namespace - expressed as xmlns. It is used for providing uniquely named elements in an xml instance.

A WSDL has a skeleton of the following elements:
Porttype - the operations performed by the web service (similar to a java class)
message - the message used by the web service (similar to a parameter)
types - the data type used by the web service.
binding - the communication protocols used by the web service

A porttype has elements:
operation - compared to a class method
input - similar to a a method parameter
output - similar to a method return type

The operation has four types:
One-way -- The operation can receive a message but will not return a response
Request-response -- The operation can receive a request and will return a response
Solicit-response -- The operation can send a request and will wait for a response
Notification -- The operation can send a message but will not wait for a response

Binding to SOAP
The binding element has two attributes:
name - arbitrary binding name
type - defines the port to bind to

soap:binding has two elements:
style: is the kind of soap for example rpc or document
transport: defines the soap protocol to use for example http
operation - this element defines operations the port exposes

Labels: Technology