What’s WSDL? – Technix

Web Service Definition Language in short WSDL is an XML format for describing network services as a set of endpoints operating on messages containing either document-oriented or procedure oriented information.

WSDL is a

XML document written to describe a web service.
It specifies the location of the web service and the operations or methods the web service exposes.

A WSDL document uses the following elements in the definition of network services (Web services)

Types – a container for data type definitions. This describes the data. The XML schema Language(Known as XSD also) is used for this purpose.
Message – an abstract, typed definition of the data being communicated. The contains the information needed to perform the operation.
Operation – an abstract description of an action supported by a service. This defines the actions and the way the message is encoded.
Port Type – an abstract set of operations supported by one or more endpoints.
Binding – a concrete protocol and data format specification for a particular port type. Defines the interface and the binding style.
Port – a Single endpoint defined as a combination of a binding and a network address. It defines the address or the connection point to a web service.
Service – a collection of related endpoints

Representation of concepts defined by WSDL 1.1 and WSDL 2.0 documents.

WSDL 1.2 has been renamed to WSDL 2.0, because of the major differences, like

Removed message constructs.
Operator overloading not supported.
PortTypes renamed to interfaces.
Ports renamed to interfaces.
Added further semantics to the description language.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<description xmlns="http://www.w3.org/ns/wsdl" 
             xmlns:tns="http://www.tmsws.com/wsdl20sample" 
             xmlns:whttp="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/http/"
             xmlns:wsoap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap/"
             targetNamespace="http://www.tmsws.com/wsdl20sample">

<!-- Abstract type -->
   <types>
      <xs:schema xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
                xmlns="http://www.tmsws.com/wsdl20sample"
                targetNamespace="http://www.example.com/wsdl20sample">

         <xs:element name="request"> ... </xs:element>
         <xs:element name="response"> ... </xs:element>
      </xs:schema>
   </types>

<!-- Abstract interfaces -->
   <interface name="Interface1">
      <fault name="Error1" element="tns:response"/>
      <operation name="Opp1" pattern="http://www.w3.org/ns/wsdl/in-out">
         <input messageLabel="In" element="tns:request"/>
         <output messageLabel="Out" element="tns:response"/>
      </operation>
   </interface>

<!-- Concrete Binding Over HTTP -->
   <binding name="HttpBinding" interface="tns:Interface1" 
            type="http://www.w3.org/ns/wsdl/http">
      <operation ref="tns:Get" whttp:method="GET"/>
   </binding>

<!-- Concrete Binding with SOAP-->
   <binding name="SoapBinding" interface="tns:Interface1" 
            type="http://www.w3.org/ns/wsdl/soap" 
            wsoap:protocol="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap/bindings/HTTP/"
            wsoap:mepDefault="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap/mep/request-response">
      <operation ref="tns:Get" />
   </binding>

<!-- Web Service offering endpoints for both bindings-->
   <service name="Service1" interface="tns:Interface1">
      <endpoint name="HttpEndpoint" 
                binding="tns:HttpBinding" 
                address="http://www.example.com/rest/"/>
      <endpoint name="SoapEndpoint" 
                binding="tns:SoapBinding" 
                address="http://www.example.com/soap/"/>
   </service>
</description>

Example WSDL

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