Previous chapters have discussed the WSDL file in general. A brief look at the parts of a WSDL file is now appropriate. A WSDL file is an XML document consisting of a series of ordered sections. These sections contain the elements defining the Web service objects and their bindings. In general, each succeeding section element references elements defined by preceding sections. This ensures the object definition and its operations are associated with the required bindings for the object.

Thus, the WSDL files generated by client toolsets follow the W3C WSDL 1.1 specification and include the element sections listed in the following table.

Table 1. WSDL element overview
Section Description
definitions Defined by one occurrence of the <definitions> element.

This section identifies the Web service, defines all valid namespaces for the WSDL file, and contains all other WSDL sections.
types Defined by one occurrence of the <types> element.

This section includes a separate schema for each Web service object. There is a separate schema that defines the SOAP fault <detail> element. These schema define the input (request) and output (response) parameters for the Web service object.

Note: The definitions for built-in XML Schema data types are not listed in the types section.
message Defined by one or more <message> elements.

This section defines the request/response message pair for all operations (ABL procedures or user-defined functions), as well as the built-in object management operations supported by each Web service object. For every operation, there is an input (or request) message and an output (or response) message. The input message groups the input parameters for the operation. The output message groups the output parameters for the operation.

In addition, the message section defines the SOAP fault message returned by every operation on occurrence of a Web service error.
portTypes Defined by one or more <portType> elements.

This section defines the signatures of all operations using the message definitions from the message section. There is a separate <portType> element defined for each Web service object.

Each <portType> element defines the operations for the specified object, using a separate <operation> element to define each operation. Each such <operation> element names the operation and references its input, output, and fault message definitions from the message section.
bindings Defined by one or more <binding> elements.

This section defines the SOAP bindings for all Web service operations. SOAP bindings show how calls to Web service operations are converted to SOAP request/response messages. A separate <binding> element defines each Web service object and contains <operation> elements that map to the corresponding <operation> elements in a <portType> element.
service Defined by one occurrence of the <service> element.

This section defines the deployed location of all Web service objects based on the root URL for the WSA instance that hosts the Web service. The <service> element includes one <port> element for each Web service object.

For more information on WSDL and its meaning, see the WSDL specification at the following URL:

http://www.w3.org/TR/wsdl