WSDL Learning Guide

WSDL (Web Services Description Language)
This guide presents WSDL articles, tutorials, examples, tips, tools, white papers, expert advice and more to pump up your WSDL know-how quickly.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
   WSDL Quick Start
   Products for Download
   WSDL Articles
   WSDL Code Samples and Tutorials
   Industry Quotes about WSDL
   WSDL White Papers
   Q&A with WSDL Experts
   Live WSDL Applications
   Online WSDL Resources
   WSDL Specs
   More Learning Guides...

W3C Abstract: "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. The operations and messages are described abstractly, and then bound to a concrete network protocol and message format 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 what message formats or network protocols are used to communicate, however, the only bindings described in this document describe how to use WSDL in conjunction with SOAP 1.1, HTTP GET/POST, and MIME."

WSDL Quick Start
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• Glossary Definition: WSDL (powered by whatis.com)


• An inside look at WSDL (The Web Services Advisor)


• Web services with WSDL (IBM)


• Web Services Description Language (WSDL) Explained (Microsoft)


• Defining Web services in WSDL: A primer (CNET Builder.com)


• A quick introduction to WSDL (Microsoft)


• Introduction to WSDL (LearnXmlWS.com)


• Overview of WSDL (Sun)


• Developer's overview of WSDL (Oracle)

WSDL Products for Download
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• Collection of WSDL Tools (SearchWebServices.com)


• WSDL Editor (Cape Clear)


• XMLSpy (Altova)


• WSDL Explorer (IBM)


• Emerging Technologies Toolkit (IBM)


• Web Services Enhancements for Microsoft .NET (Microsoft)


• Omniopera (Kamiak Corp.)


• XML for Analysis SDK: WSDL Files (Microsoft)


• Free tools from PushToTest (PushToTest.com)


• Disco Language WSDL Server (SourceForge.net)


• WSDL4Reg (SourceForge.net)


• WSDL Generator (SourceForge.net)


• WSDL2HTML (SourceForge.net)


• webMethods Enterprise Web Services (evaluation copy) (webMethods)

WSDL Articles
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• Browse and bookmark our collection of editor-selected WSDL articles. (SearchWebServices.com)


• Article: Don Box on the Importance of Being WSDL. (Microsoft)


• Article: A Busy Developers Guide to WSDL. (Sam Ruby)


• Article: WSDL Tales From The Trenches. (O'Reilly)


• Article: Understanding WSDL in a UDDI registry. (IBM)


• Article: Deploying Web services with WSDL. (IBM)


• Article: Understanding Overloading in WSDL. (O'Reilly)

WSDL Code Samples and Tutorials
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• Browse and bookmark our collection of editor-selected WSDL examples. (SearchWebServices.com)


• Read this tutorial called About the DocSample1.wsdl File (Microsoft)


• Visit the fictional organization called PencilSellers.org (Microsoft)


• Read this WSDL Tutorial (Altova)


• Read this WSDL Tutorial (W3Schools)


• Annotated WSDL Examples (W3C.org)


• Annotated RDF WSDL Examples (W3C.org)


• Basic WSDL and how to use WSDL docs to Access a SOAP Service (DevHood)


• A WSDL description of a "stock quote" service (Anders Moller & Michael)


• An introduction to WSDL for SOAP programmers (IBM)


• WSDL Example (WebReference.com)


• Stock demonstration program (Cape Clear)


• Sample packages (webMethods)

Industry Quotes about WSDL
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• Will Provost, independent consultant, O'Reilly writer: "If you're serious about developing RPC-style services, you should know WSDL as well as you know WXS; you should be creating and editing descriptors frequently. More importantly, a WSDL descriptor should be the source document for your web service build process, for a number of reasons..."
• AnnraÍ O'Toole, Cape Clear CEO and cofounder: "The only way to deal with XML is to have a tool that's going to generate it for you, and that's doubly true of WSDL."
• Rebecca Dias, product manager for advanced Web services at Microsoft: "[XML-based] SOAP and WSDL are inherently extensible, but some stuff wasn't there."
• David Schatsky, analyst with Jupiter Research: "With this draft of the spec, WSDL formally leaves the control of a small core group of vendors and becomes subject to the W3C process and technical requirements. It's an necessary--and expected--step toward cementing WSDL's status as a key, vendor-neutral standard."
• Michael Champion, R&D advisor at Software AG: "People learned their lesson with the COM and CORBA situations, where there were all these implementations that were legal according to the specifications but didn't interoperate," Software AG's Champion said. "There's a very strong commitment across the board in the industry to making SOAP and WSDL as interoperable as possible."

WSDL White Papers
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• Introduction to Web services (Systinet)


• XML Web Services Basics (Microsoft)


• Top 4 ways to know your WSDL (Mindreef)


• On Using WSDL in UDDI Registry (Systinet)


• Web services conceptual architecture (IBM)


• Overview of SOAP Client in Windows XP (Microsoft)

Q & A with WSDL Experts
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• What does it mean for WSDL to be "correct"?


• Is it mandatory to have a virtual path to a WSDL document in a UDDI entry? If not, how do I get information about a published service?


• I need to invoke a Java Web service from a .NET client. The Java Web service is hosted on Apache-Axis using JBoss. How do I convert my WSDL created from Java services to the .NET client?


• I need a comprehensive WSDL Parser. Is there any open source WSDL Parser available? I need to parse the WSDL and generate the client on the fly.


• I've been using IBM WebSphere Studio Application Developer to create Java-based Web services for testing. I have created a simple Web service in C#.NET and would like to try to consume it in Java. I can't find the WSDL file for the .NET application.


• Got questions? Pose your own WSDL question to WSDL/SOAP expert Anne Thomas Manes, Burton Group.

Live WSDL Applications
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• Visit the WSDL Analyzer from XMethods and The Mind Electric.


• Visit the W3C XSLT Service from W3C.org.


• Visit the Transform Your WSDL page from Cape Clear.


• Visit the WSDL Browser from GotDotNet.com.


• Visit the WSDL Parser from SOAPClient.


• Visit the VeriSign Payment Service from webMethods.

Online WSDL Resources
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• Visit our comprehensive collection of editor-selected WSDL resources (SearchWebServices.com)
  
• XML Cover Pages: WSDL


• IBM developerWorks


• Yahoo Group for WSDL


• Microsoft MSDN Library

WSDL Specs
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• Web Services Description Language (WSDL) 1.1 (W3C)


• Web Services Description Language (WSDL) Version 1.2 Part 1: Core Language (W3C)


• Web Services Description Language (WSDL) Version 1.2 Part 2: Message Patterns (W3C)


• Web Services Description Language (WSDL) Version 1.2 Part 3: Bindings (W3C)