WSDL Documents

Each service is represented by a Web Services Description Language (WSDL) document.

WSDL is an XML format that describes the public interface of a Web service in terms of a set of endpoints. A WSDL document is generated for each service when it is defined. For complete information on the WSDL format, see the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) page at http://www.w3.org/TR/wsdl.

Any user with access to a published Web service via a UDDI registry can develop an imported service that replicates all methods of the published service by reusing its WSDL document.

The database and messaging services you create can also be changed to add more port operations, but you cannot change WSDL documents that you discover, such as a WSDL document associated with Web services. Changing the WSDL breaks the link to the original process, meaning the original functionality is made unavailable. The structure of a WSDL is important because the consistency allows integration of differing applications within and across organizations and platforms.

WSDL documents have the following structure:

Logical (the design side, not involved with the physical):
- Types, for example, XSD
- Operations
- Port types, the interface/methods
Physical (related to the binding information):
- Ports
- Services, including types, messages, operations, and port types

Restrictions for externally sourced WSDL files

Sybase WorkSpace supports only those document structures that conform to the final recommendations of W3C for schemas. The Sybase WorkSpace parser verifies that the namespace of the WSDL file includes the 2001 W3C schema namespace, described at http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema.

The WSDL import element is not supported.

Schemas that are imported into WSDL cannot have relative URIs as targetNameSpace values. Such schemas are not fully compatible with all client models. For example, these schemas may not work with clients that use Java to XML bindings created by the Apache wsdl2java tool. Services that use these schemas cannot be tested with the Web service client or service test wizards.