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<title>Web Services Description Language (WSDL)</title>
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<h1 class="topictitle1">Web Services Description Language (WSDL)</h1>
<div><p>Web Services Description Language (WSDL) is a standard specification
for describing networked, XML-based services. It provides a simple way for
service providers to describe the basic format of requests to their systems
regardless of the underlying run-time implementation.</p>
<p>WSDL defines an XML format for describing network services as a set of
 <var class="varname">endpoints</var> that operate on messages that contain either
document-oriented or procedure-oriented information. The operations and messages
are first described abstractly and then bound to a concrete network protocol
and message format in order to define an endpoint. Related concrete endpoints
are combined into abstract endpoints (services). WSDL is extensible to allow
description of endpoints and their messages, regardless of which message formats
or network protocols are used to communicate. This means that interfaces are
defined abstractly using XML schema and then bound to concrete representations
that are appropriate for the protocol.</p>
<p>WSDL allows a service provider to specify the following characteristics
of a Web service:</p>
<ul><li>The name of the Web service and addressing information</li>
<li>The protocol and encoding style to be used when accessing the public operations
of the Web service</li>
<li>The type information such as operations, parameters, and data types comprising
the interface of the Web service</li>
</ul>
<p>WSDL documents allow developers to expose their applications as network-accessible
services on the Internet. Through UDDI and WSIL, other applications can discover
WSDL documents and bind with them to execute transactions or perform other
business processes.</p>
<p>This product supports and encourages the development and use of WS-I compliant
WSDL. Using Rational Developer
products a business service provider can deploy Java™ beans and enterprise beans, DADX-described
queries and remote procedures, or existing URLs as a Web service and generate
a WSDL document that describes the service. They can also generate Java and
enterprise bean skeletons from an existing WSDL file. A business service client
can generate a Java proxy from a WSDL document, thereby providing an
easy-to-use Java interface to the Web service. The Java interface
hides the network communications details from the client enabling the business
service provider to focus on business and process portions of the application.</p>
<p>In addition to providing tools to create Web services, 
you are also provided with a WSDL editor that allows you to create WSDL files using
a graphical interface, a WSDL validator that ensures that your WSDL file is
semantically correct and optionally checks for WS-I compliance, and the Web
Services Explorer which allows you to dynamically test Web services without
requiring you to generate a proxy.</p>
<p>This product supports WSDL 1.1. For more information on the WSDL specification,
refer to  <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/wsdl" target="_blank">www.w3.org/TR/wsdl</a></p>
</div>
<div>
<ul class="ullinks">
<li class="ulchildlink"><strong><a href="../ref/rwsdl.html">Web Services Description Language (WSDL) reference</a></strong><br />
A WSDL document defines services as collections of network endpoints,
or ports. In WSDL, the abstract definition of endpoints and messages is separated
from their concrete network deployment or data format bindings. This allows
the reuse of abstract definitions: messages, which are abstract descriptions
of the data being exchanged, and port types which are abstract collections
of operations. </li>
</ul>

<div class="familylinks">
<div class="parentlink"><strong>Parent topic:</strong> <a href="../concepts/cws.html" title="A Web service is a set of related application functions that can be programmatically invoked over the Internet. Businesses can dynamically mix and match Web services to perform complex transactions with minimal programming. Web services allow buyers and sellers all over the world to discover each other, connect dynamically, and execute transactions in real time with minimal human interaction.">Web services overview</a></div>
</div>

<div class="linklist"><strong>Related Concepts</strong><br />

<div><a href="cws.html" title="A Web service is a set of related application functions that can be programmatically invoked over the Internet. Businesses can dynamically mix and match Web services to perform complex transactions with minimal programming. Web services allow buyers and sellers all over the world to discover each other, connect dynamically, and execute transactions in real time with minimal human interaction.">Web services overview</a></div>
<div><a href="cwsinwsa.html">Tools for Web services development</a></div></div>

<div class="linklist"><strong>Related Tasks</strong><br />

<div><a href="../tasks/toverws.html"> Developing Web
services</a></div></div>
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