.: What is WSDL?
By:Jim Pretin
Category:Home / Internet / Web Design
Remember the good old days, when the internet consisted of nothing more than a few simple web sites formatted in basic HTML? Web design was so easy. You could just slap some text into a file, insert some HTML tags into the document to tell the web browser how the text should appear and what the structure of the page should be, and presto, the job was finished.
As time went on, web design became arduous. Businesses, especially ecommerce businesses that depended upon their internet storefronts to make a living, began to present web designers with near impossible projects that were too difficult to complete with basic HTML. The data being used and the designs that were being implemented for websites required more versatile programming specifications.
Another culprit that made site design so difficult was the advent of the wireless revolution. Wireless devices often have web browsers that work very differently from the ones installed on an ordinary desktop PC. Many of these browsers are not fully compatible with many elements of the HTML programming language. As a result, people surfing the net on their wireless gadgets can not view many websites that are created using only basic HTML.
To solve the dilemma, languages and specifications that could be adapted across any platform were created. The most important new language introduced was XML. XML was a language that defined data without telling the web browser how to display it, as opposed to HTML, which forced data to be displayed a certain way. This enabled data to be viewed on virtually any system because an XML file was a simple text file that could be understood and displayed on any browser.
Now that you understand how and why web design has changed, you are now ready for a brief introduction to the main topic of this article, WSDL (Web Services Description Language). It is written in XML, and it describes the location and methods of a web service. The definition of a web service as it pertains to this discussion is a software system designed to support machine-to-machine interaction over a network.
A WSDL document is a relatively simple XML document that generally consists of four main elements. The first and most important of these elements is the portType element. PortType describes the web service, the messages that can be used and the operations that can be performed. The next element is called message. Message defines the data elements and is akin to the parameters that are used in a function when a function is called. The third element is the types element. Types defines the data types utilized by the web service; the main WSDL data type is XML Schema. The final important element is called binding. It defines the communication protocol for the service.
Since portType is the most important because it defines the operations of the web service in question, we will list the four different types of operations that can be defined by the portType element. The first operation type is one-way, meaning the operation can receive a message but will not return a response. The second type is request-response, which means the operation can receive a message and return a response. Next is solicit-response, which sends a message and waits for a response, and the fourth type of operation is called notification, which simply sends a message and does not wait for a response. Other than portType, the other important WSDL element that is worth describing here is the binding element. It defines the communication protocol to be used. An example would be SOAP, which is an XML-based protocol that enables applications to exchange information using HTTP.
A simple example of a situation in which WSDL might be used would be for a web site that provides real-time stock quotes. When the user inputs the ticker symbol for the stock for which they want the current market price, the web service that supplies the current price would be called to action by a WSDL file that would initiate a solicit-response operation so that the web service will return a response to the message. The response would be either the current quoted price, or perhaps an error message stating that the ticker symbol entered is not valid.
WSDL is an extremely important specification. For those of you who design web sites for a living, especially if you create interactive sites that are connected to web services, you need to understand how to implement these types of files. With so many computers and other devices no longer being fully compatible with HTML, it is important to use an XML-based language such as WSDL to insure that your web site functions properly across all web browsers and platforms.
Article keywords: WSDL, web services
Article Source: http://www.articles32.com
Jim Pretin is the owner of http://www.forms4free.com, a service that helps programmers make email forms.
.: New Web Design Articles
1). HTML Might Become Obsolete
Web designers are beginning to dump HTML in favor of more versatile web programming languages
2). Macromedia Dreamweaver: An Introduction
Getting started with your first web page can seem very daunting indeed. Macromedia Dreamweaver is the industry leader in web editors, but knowing where to start and what you need to know can be a little confusing at first.
3). Finding A Good Web Designer
Avoid the mistakes I made when I hired someone over the internet to design my web site
4). Top Tips for Getting Free Websites
There are millions of opportunities of earning money online, but for that you frequently need to have a web site and there are many people interested in how to build a web site online for free. So whether you want to build a free business web site or to build a Yahoo-like web site, you can be sure there are plenty of online guides, such as this, to take you step by step through the process.
5). Is Your Web Site Driving Away Visitors?
Much has been written about optimizing your web site for search engines, but less emphasis is placed on usability. Optimizing for usability and for search engines is not a contradiction.
6). Choosing a Web Designer
freelance web designers are rip-off artists
7). HTML Sitemaps Are Still Important
An html sitemap is one that humans and search engines both can read. Google sitemaps are important too, but they are specific to google and are read only by a search engine.
.: Top Web Design Articles
1). Advanced Joomla Templating (pt1) Using Module Class Suffix
an article from User Written Resources
1. duplicate the styles already used for the particular module, adding a suffix to each style name. this will definitely include some of the following;
1. .module {} 2. div.moduletable {} 3. div.moduletable h3 {} 4. table.moduletable {}/li> 5. table.moduletable th 6. table.moduletable td
and can include other styles used on the content in that section, such as;
1.
2). How To Make a MySpace Layout That Stand Out
If you are a MySpace user, you have learned what an easy to read and fun profile looks like. The only problem is, you may not know how to create or find out. Most of the time when you see an awful MySpace layout, it's because its sloppy, hard to read, or has annoying links you didn’t even see. That is because since MySpace has been growing so much, so have the layout sites.
3). Professional XOOPS theme design - What to look for
In general, prices for theme design work will range depending on a number of factors. If you don't mind the designer releasing the theme on their site for others to purchase, then you can expect anywhere from $20US to $50US for your theme. If the theme must be a one of a kind theme that only you use, you could expect to multipy the fee by at least 10x.
4). Adsense: The Smart Investment
Over the last 2 years, We have been building a Virtual Adsense Empire of over 500 websites and making some good money. We've also been building content sites for clients using the same system. The system we use is not something that produces 1000's of sites with a click of a button, our system does not build spam websites, nor does it produce the same sites you see over and over and over again.
5). Irish Graphic Design Industry
Graphic design is the use of color, light, balance, contrast, emphasis, proportion, proximity, repetition, texture and a plethora of other elements to create a work of digital art that is pleasing to the eye. Graphic design is about seamlessly molding image and text to convey a theme, message, or often advertise a product or service. Graphic design dates back to prehistoric times.
6). How to Create a Splash Page for Your Website?
These splash designs prove to be quite popular, especially among the designers as they allow the designer to show their skills in flash and any other technology on a single page. The splash page design involved in the splash page will be one that is very attractive to the eye of the viewer. Its main intention lies in captivating the viewer the moment he looks at it.
7). Does Your Web Design Include Background Music?
When you design your website, you may wonder whether or not you should include background music in your web design. The answer to this requires you to ask two additional questions: