WSDL

WSDL (Web Services Description Language) is a W3C standard XML format for describing web service interfaces. It defines services as collections of network endpoints (ports) that exchange messages, specifying the abstract operations, message formats, and protocol bindings needed to interact with a web service. WSDL 2.0 became a W3C Recommendation on June 26, 2007, and adds support for all HTTP request methods, making it more suitable for RESTful web services than its predecessor WSDL 1.1.

WSDL is profiled on the APIs.io network. Tagged areas include Service Description, W3C, Web Services, WSDL, and XML.

The WSDL catalog on APIs.io includes 1 JSON-LD context and 1 Spectral governance ruleset.

WSDL’s developer surface includes documentation and 26 more developer resources.

🌐 Visit website 📡 Source on GitHub

25.7/100 emerging ▬ flat Agent 0/100 human only Full breakdown ↓
scored 2026-07-27 · rubric v0.5

0 APIs 10 Features 6 Use Cases

Service DescriptionW3CWeb ServicesWSDLXMLSOAPStandardsProtocols

Kin Score

Kin Score How this is scored →
scored 2026-07-27 · rubric v0.5

Composite quality — 25.7/100 · emerging

Contract Quality 5.2 / 25

Developer Ergonomics 2.6 / 20

Commercial Clarity 0.0 / 20

Operational Transparency 0.7 / 13

Governance 10.4 / 12

Discoverability 6.8 / 10

Agent readiness — 0/100 · human only

Machine-Readable Contract 0 / 18

Agentic Access Contract 0 / 15

MCP Server 0 / 12

Machine-Readable Auth 0 / 10

Idempotency 0 / 9

Stable Error Semantics 0 / 8

Request/Response Examples 0 / 7

Rate-Limit Signaling 0 / 7

Typed Event Surface 0 / 6

Agent Skills 0 / 5

Well-Known Catalog 0 / 4

Consent & Bot Identity 0 / 3

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Features 10

Notable capabilities this provider offers.

Abstract Service Interface

Defines abstract interfaces separating service contract from protocol binding.

Message Exchange Patterns

Supports In-Only, Robust In-Only, and In-Out message exchange patterns.

SOAP Binding

Native SOAP 1.2 binding for web service interoperability.

HTTP Binding

HTTP binding supporting all HTTP methods including GET, POST, PUT, DELETE.

RPC Style Operations

RPC-style operation dispatch with input and output message wrappers.

Type System Integration

Integrates with XML Schema for defining message types.

Multiple Endpoints

Supports multiple endpoints per service with different protocol bindings.

Namespace and Modularity

Uses XML namespaces to enable modular and reusable service descriptions.

Operation Safety Declaration

Allows marking safe read-only operations per web architecture principles.

RDF Mapping

Normative mapping to RDF for linked data and semantic web integration.

Scroll for all 10

JSON Schema 8

Standalone JSON Schema definitions for this provider's data models.

Scroll for all 8

Security Posture 1

Authentication, domain security, vulnerability disclosure, and trust-center signals.

Wsdl Domain Security

TLSv1.3 · HSTS · DMARC

SECURITY

Use Cases 6

What developers build with this provider.

SOAP Web Service Description

Describing enterprise SOAP web services for automated client generation.

Service Contract Definition

Defining service contracts between service providers and consumers.

Code Generation

Generating client proxy code and server stubs from WSDL documents.

Service Discovery

Enabling automated discovery and invocation of web services.

Interoperability Testing

Validating interoperability between different SOAP implementations.

REST Service Description

Describing RESTful services using WSDL 2.0 HTTP binding support.

Integrations 6

Pre-built integrations with other platforms and tools.

XML Schema

WSDL 2.0 uses XML Schema for type definitions.

SOAP 1.2

Native SOAP 1.2 binding defined in WSDL 2.0 Part 2.

HTTP 1.1

HTTP binding supporting REST-style services.

UDDI

WSDL documents are referenced in UDDI service registries.

WS-Policy

Web services policy framework that annotates WSDL descriptions.

WS-Addressing

Endpoint reference standards used with WSDL service endpoints.

Resources

Documentation 13

Reference material describing how the API behaves

WSDL 2.0 Part 1 Core Language

Specification

WSDL 2.0 Part 2 Adjuncts

Specification

WSDL 2.0 Part 0 Primer

Specification

WSDL 2.0 RDF Mapping

Specification

WSDL 2.0 Technical Reports

WSDL Description

WSDL Types

WSDL Interface

WSDL Operation

WSDL Interface Fault

WSDL Binding

WSDL Service

WSDL Endpoint

Scroll for all 13

Design & Contract 10

Pagination, idempotency, versioning, errors, and events

WSDL JSON-LD Context

JSONLDContext

WSDL Description Structure

JSONStructure

WSDL Types Structure

JSONStructure

WSDL Interface Structure

JSONStructure

WSDL Operation Structure

JSONStructure

WSDL Interface Fault Structure

JSONStructure

WSDL Binding Structure

JSONStructure

WSDL Service Structure

JSONStructure

WSDL Endpoint Structure

JSONStructure

WSDL Vocabulary

Vocabulary

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Build 1

SDKs, sample code, and the tooling you integrate with

W3C GitHub

GitHubOrganization

Access & Security 1

Authentication, authorization, and security posture

DomainSecurity

DomainSecurity

Operate 1

Status, limits, changes, and where to get help

W3C Web Services Discussion

Community

Company 1

The organization behind the API

W3C Web Services Activity

Website

Source (apis.yml)

aid: wsdl
accessModel:
  pricing: unknown
  onboarding: unknown
  trial: false
  try_now: false
  public: false
  label: Unknown
  confidence: low
  source: []
  generated: '2026-07-22'
  method: derived
image: https://kinlane-images.s3.amazonaws.com/shared/apis-json/icons/wsdl.png
name: WSDL
description: WSDL (Web Services Description Language) is a W3C standard XML format for describing web service interfaces.
  It defines services as collections of network endpoints (ports) that exchange messages, specifying the abstract operations,
  message formats, and protocol bindings needed to interact with a web service. WSDL 2.0 became a W3C Recommendation on June
  26, 2007, and adds support for all HTTP request methods, making it more suitable for RESTful web services than its predecessor
  WSDL 1.1.
url: https://www.w3.org/TR/wsdl20/
tags:
- Service Description
- W3C
- Web Services
- WSDL
- XML
- SOAP
- Standards
- Protocols
created: '2025'
modified: '2026-05-03'
specificationVersion: '0.19'
apis: []
common:
- type: DomainSecurity
  url: security/wsdl-domain-security.yml
- type: Specification
  title: WSDL 2.0 Part 1 Core Language
  url: https://www.w3.org/TR/wsdl20/
  description: Core language specification defining the WSDL 2.0 component model, XML representation, and conformance requirements.
- type: Specification
  title: WSDL 2.0 Part 2 Adjuncts
  url: https://www.w3.org/TR/wsdl20-adjuncts/
  description: Defines message exchange patterns, operation styles, and SOAP/HTTP binding extensions for WSDL 2.0.
- type: Specification
  title: WSDL 2.0 Part 0 Primer
  url: https://www.w3.org/TR/wsdl20-primer/
  description: Non-normative introduction and tutorial for the WSDL 2.0 specification with worked examples.
- type: Specification
  title: WSDL 2.0 RDF Mapping
  url: https://www.w3.org/TR/wsdl20-rdf/
  description: Normative mapping from WSDL 2.0 component model to RDF triples for linked data representation.
- type: Website
  title: W3C Web Services Activity
  url: https://www.w3.org/standards/techs/wsdl
  description: W3C standards page for WSDL covering all versions and related specifications.
- type: Documentation
  title: WSDL 2.0 Technical Reports
  url: https://www.w3.org/TR/?tag=webservice
  description: All W3C technical reports related to web services including WSDL.
- type: GitHubOrganization
  title: W3C GitHub
  url: https://github.com/w3c
  description: W3C organization on GitHub where web standards tooling and schemas are maintained.
- type: Community
  title: W3C Web Services Discussion
  url: https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-ws-desc/
  description: Public mailing list archive for the W3C Web Services Description Working Group.
- type: JSONSchema
  title: WSDL Description
  url: json-schema/wsdl-description.json
- type: JSONSchema
  title: WSDL Types
  url: json-schema/wsdl-types.json
- type: JSONSchema
  title: WSDL Interface
  url: json-schema/wsdl-interface.json
- type: JSONSchema
  title: WSDL Operation
  url: json-schema/wsdl-operation.json
- type: JSONSchema
  title: WSDL Interface Fault
  url: json-schema/wsdl-interface-fault.json
- type: JSONSchema
  title: WSDL Binding
  url: json-schema/wsdl-binding.json
- type: JSONSchema
  title: WSDL Service
  url: json-schema/wsdl-service.json
- type: JSONSchema
  title: WSDL Endpoint
  url: json-schema/wsdl-endpoint.json
- type: JSONLDContext
  title: WSDL JSON-LD Context
  url: json-ld/wsdl-context.jsonld
- type: JSONStructure
  title: WSDL Description Structure
  url: json-structure/wsdl-description-structure.json
- type: JSONStructure
  title: WSDL Types Structure
  url: json-structure/wsdl-types-structure.json
- type: JSONStructure
  title: WSDL Interface Structure
  url: json-structure/wsdl-interface-structure.json
- type: JSONStructure
  title: WSDL Operation Structure
  url: json-structure/wsdl-operation-structure.json
- type: JSONStructure
  title: WSDL Interface Fault Structure
  url: json-structure/wsdl-interface-fault-structure.json
- type: JSONStructure
  title: WSDL Binding Structure
  url: json-structure/wsdl-binding-structure.json
- type: JSONStructure
  title: WSDL Service Structure
  url: json-structure/wsdl-service-structure.json
- type: JSONStructure
  title: WSDL Endpoint Structure
  url: json-structure/wsdl-endpoint-structure.json
- type: Vocabulary
  title: WSDL Vocabulary
  url: vocabulary/wsdl-vocabulary.yaml
- type: Features
  data:
  - name: Abstract Service Interface
    description: Defines abstract interfaces separating service contract from protocol binding.
  - name: Message Exchange Patterns
    description: Supports In-Only, Robust In-Only, and In-Out message exchange patterns.
  - name: SOAP Binding
    description: Native SOAP 1.2 binding for web service interoperability.
  - name: HTTP Binding
    description: HTTP binding supporting all HTTP methods including GET, POST, PUT, DELETE.
  - name: RPC Style Operations
    description: RPC-style operation dispatch with input and output message wrappers.
  - name: Type System Integration
    description: Integrates with XML Schema for defining message types.
  - name: Multiple Endpoints
    description: Supports multiple endpoints per service with different protocol bindings.
  - name: Namespace and Modularity
    description: Uses XML namespaces to enable modular and reusable service descriptions.
  - name: Operation Safety Declaration
    description: Allows marking safe read-only operations per web architecture principles.
  - name: RDF Mapping
    description: Normative mapping to RDF for linked data and semantic web integration.
- type: UseCases
  data:
  - name: SOAP Web Service Description
    description: Describing enterprise SOAP web services for automated client generation.
  - name: Service Contract Definition
    description: Defining service contracts between service providers and consumers.
  - name: Code Generation
    description: Generating client proxy code and server stubs from WSDL documents.
  - name: Service Discovery
    description: Enabling automated discovery and invocation of web services.
  - name: Interoperability Testing
    description: Validating interoperability between different SOAP implementations.
  - name: REST Service Description
    description: Describing RESTful services using WSDL 2.0 HTTP binding support.
- type: Integrations
  data:
  - name: XML Schema
    description: WSDL 2.0 uses XML Schema for type definitions.
  - name: SOAP 1.2
    description: Native SOAP 1.2 binding defined in WSDL 2.0 Part 2.
  - name: HTTP 1.1
    description: HTTP binding supporting REST-style services.
  - name: UDDI
    description: WSDL documents are referenced in UDDI service registries.
  - name: WS-Policy
    description: Web services policy framework that annotates WSDL descriptions.
  - name: WS-Addressing
    description: Endpoint reference standards used with WSDL service endpoints.
maintainers:
- FN: Kin Lane
  email: kin@apievangelist.com

WSDL

Features 10

Abstract Service Interface

Message Exchange Patterns

SOAP Binding

HTTP Binding

RPC Style Operations

Type System Integration

Multiple Endpoints

Namespace and Modularity

Operation Safety Declaration

RDF Mapping

Semantic Vocabularies 1

Spectral Rules 1

JSON Schema 8

JSON Structure 8

Security Posture 1

Use Cases 6

SOAP Web Service Description

Service Contract Definition

Code Generation

Service Discovery

Interoperability Testing

REST Service Description

Integrations 6

XML Schema

SOAP 1.2

HTTP 1.1

UDDI

WS-Policy

WS-Addressing

Documentation 13

Design & Contract 10

Build 1

Access & Security 1

Operate 1

Company 1

Source (apis.yml)