The Web Services Description Language (WSDL, pronounced 'wiz-dell', or 'wooz-dul', sometimes also 'wazoodel', and, albeit rarely, 'doubleyou-ess-dee-el') is an XML format published for describing Web services. Version 1.1 has not been endorsed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), however it has released several drafts for version 2.0, that will be a W3C recommendation, and thus endorsed by the W3C.

WSDL describes the public interface to the web service. This is an XML-based service description on how to communicate using the web service; namely, the protocol bindings and message formats required to interact with the web services listed in its directory. The supported operations and messages are described abstractly, and then bound to a concrete network protocol and message format.

WSDL is often used in combination with SOAP and XML Schema to provide web services over the internet. A client program connecting to a web service can read the WSDL to determine what functions are available on the server. Any special datatypes used are embedded in the WSDL file in the form of XML Schema. The client can then use SOAP to actually call one of the functions listed in the WSDL.

XLang is an extension of the WSDL such that "an XLANG service description is a WSDL service description with an extension element that describes the behavior of the service as a part of a business process" ^*.

Resources or services are exposed using WSDL by both Web Services Interoperability (WS-I Basic Profile) and WSRF framework.

See also

• Web Service
• List of Web service specifications
• List of Web service markup languages
• Comparison of Web service markup languages
• SOAP
• Web Services Invocation Framework (WSIF)
• Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI)

External links

• WSDL 1.1 Specification
• WSDL 2.0 Specification Part 0: Primer (Latest Version)
• WSDL 2.0 Specification Part 1: Core (Latest Version)
• WSDL 2.0 Specification Part 2: Adjuncts (Latest Version)
• Web Services Description Working Group
• XML protocol activity
• JSR-110: Java APIs for WSDL
• Online WSDL Validator
• Another Online WSDL Validator
• W3Schools WSDL tutorial
• WSDL programmatic visualization with Linguine Maps
• BileBlog on WSDL
• Online WS-I WSDL Validator

XML-based standards | Web service specifications | Web services

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