WSDL

WSDL stands for Web Services Description Language. For our purposes, we can say that a WSDL file is an XML document that describes a set of SOAP messages and how the messages are exchanged. In other words, WSDL is to SOAP what OpenAPI Specification (OAS) is to REST. Since WSDL is XML, it can be read and edited, but in most cases it is generated and consumed by software.

The notation that a WSDL file uses to describe message formats is based on the XML Schema standard, which means it is both programming-language neutral and standards‑based, making it suitable for describing Web services interfaces that are accessible from a wide variety of platforms and programming languages. In addition to describing message contents, WSDL defines where the service is available and what communications protocol is used to talk to the service. This means that the WSDL file defines everything required to write a program to work with a Web service. A WSDL document can be generated by JADE and consumed by another JADE or third‑party application. JADE provides the necessary tools to do this quickly and easily.