Files with the WSDL extension contain web service interfaces expressed in the Web Service Description Language (WSDL). WSDL is a standard XML document type specified by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C, see www.w3.org for more information).
WSDL files are used to communicate interface information between web service producers and consumers. A WSDL description allows a client to utilize a web service's capabilities without knowledge of the implementation details of the web service.
A WSDL file contains all of the information necessary for a client to invoke the methods of a web service:
When you want to use an external web service from within Workshop, you should first obtain the WSDL file for the service you want to use. For public web services, the WSDL file will typically be available on the web site of the organization that publishes the web service. For private web services, contact the organization that supports the web service to obtain the WSDL file.
WSDL files can also be found through both public and private UDDI registries. To learn more about UDDI, visit http://www.uddi.org.
Once you have the WSDL file, you may use Workshop to create a service control. The service control may then be used from your application like any other Workshop control.
Some web service tools produce WSDL files that do not contain an XML declaration. Workshop requires that all XML files contain an XML declaration. The XML declaration is just the first line of an XML file of the following form:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
If you receive a WSDL file that does not contain an XML declaration, you must add a declaration to the file using a text editor before you can use the WSDL file in Workshop.
Note that the encoding attribute is not required. If an encoding attribute is not present, the default encoding is utf-8.
When you want to make your web service available to others, you do so by producing a WSDL file for your web service and making it available to your service's clients.
To generate the WSDL file for you web service:
The generate WSDL can then copied to the client's machine.
If the client is a web service or some other Java component built with Workshop, it can use a service control file generated directly from the WSDL file.
To generate a service control from a WSDL:
You can also generate a web service class from a WSDL. The resulting web service class will contain the public endpoint interface described by the WSDL (the public methods and callbacks) without the implementation. After the web service has been generated, the developer must fill in the web service implementation details.
To generate a web service from a WSDL: