Exploring WSDL using the WSDL Explorer

Prerequisites: To use the WSDL Explorer, you must have a valid URL for a WSDL document.
The WSDL Explorer allows you to explore, and test WSDL documents. The following actions are available in the WSDL Explorer:

Launching the WSDL Explorer

To launch the WSDL Explorer, complete the following steps:

  1. Launch the Web Services Explorer.
  2. Switch to the WSDL Explorer by clicking the icon in the upper right-hand corner Icon to launch the WSDL Explorer.

Importing a WSDL file to your workspace

To import the WSDL file to the Workbench:

  1. Click this icon: Import WSDL to the Workbench icon.
  2. Select the project into which you want to import the WSDL.
  3. If you want to generate a WSIL file from the WSDL, select Import as a service reference to a WSIL document.
  4. Click Go.

Importing a WSDL file to your file system

To import the WSDL file to your file system, click this icon: Import WSDL to your file system icon. Specify where you want the WSDL file saved on your system.

Launching the Web services wizard

To launch the Web Service Wizard, click this icon: Launch the Web Service Wizard icon. You can select if you want to create a Web service client or a Skeleton Web service from the WSDL file. Click Go to launch the wizard.

Adding a WSDL file to your favorites

To add the WSDL file to Favorites, click this icon: Add WSDL to Favorites icon

. The Status pane displays that the WSDL was successfully added to your list of favorites.

Exploring WSDL documents using the WSDL Explorer:

  1. Select WSDL Main in the Navigator pane, enter or browse to an existing WSDL URL in the right-hand pane, and click Go. Note that the Explorer will only allow you to browse for WSDL files that reside in the WebContent/WSDL folder of a project. To explore WSDL files stored in other locations within your workspace, type the name of the WSDL file or select the file in the workspace, right-click and select Web Services > Launch Web Services Explorer. For this example the WSDL being used is a Web Service which returns a temperature for any entered zip code.

    The following nodes will be added to the WSDL tree:
    • The WSDL node: WSDL node icon
    • The service node (which represents a service element within the WSDL file): Service node icon
    • The binding node: Binding node icon
    • The operation node: Operation node icon
  2. Clicking the Service node in the Navigator pane (in this example this would be the TemperatureService node) displays all the bindings for this service, as well as their type and a brief description of the binding if the WSDL provider has included one in the Actions pane. Three types of bindings are supported: SOAP, HTTP Get, and HTTP Post.

    The WSDL used in this example only has one binding, TemperatureBinding, which is represented as the TemperaturePortType node in the WSDL tree in the Navigator pane.
  3. Clicking a displayed binding or its node displays the WSDL binding details in the Actions pane. This includes the operations and endpoints available for this service.

    In this view you can add or remove endpoints for the service. To add an endpoint, click Add, enter the URL for the endpoint, and click Go. The Status pane should say that the endpoints were successfully updated. To remove an endpoint, select its checkbox, and click Remove.
Note: When the Web Services Explorer loads WSDL files that use multiple inline schemas, warning messages will be generated for types that are referenced across these schemas. The warning message will be similar to: Reference of type <qualified_type_name> isn't resolved.
Related Concepts
Web services development
Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI)
Related Tasks
Publishing Web services and business entities
Launching the Web Services Explorer
Developing Web services