why WSDL ?

[Former Member]

Hi,

I have few confusions in XI

1) why we use WSDL for interfaces ? are we publishing any web services ? or WSDL can be used to other purposes also ?

2) in XI are we using XML messages or SOAP messages interanlly ? because when we try to trace our messages using SXMB_MONI we find SOAP message ?

thanks in advance

Regards

Mahesh.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Most simplest answer for the first question

<b>WSDL</b> is being used to have a common standard for the exchange of data between different system in a hetrogeneous landscape.

Suppose xi has to interact with a soap client and mail server. There has to be common language that both can understand as the data transferred in xml.

As suggested by some other experts <b>Soap</b> is used in xi to extend the functionality of weservices to xi.

Hope it answers a bit.

cheers,

*Raj*

*REWARD POINTS IF FOUND USEFULL*

[Former Member]

thansk for all valuable replies...

regards

mahesh.

[former_member529475]

Hi Mahesh

<i>1) why we use WSDL for interfaces ? are we publishing any web services ? or WSDL can be used to other purposes also ?</i>

a. Web Service Definition Language (WSDL) is a specification defining how to describe web services in a common XML grammar

b. WSDL defines how a web service behaves

c. Message Interfaces (WSDL): defines the interface of a service that uses that message type to export/import data (like when you have a method that returns or consumes some parameters of determined types: int parseInt (String s) ).

For reference, visit the given link....

https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/com.sap.km.cm.docs/library/xi/3.0/how%20to%20...

Cheers...

Vasu

<b>** REward POints if found useful **</b>

[Former Member]

Hi mahesh,

The doubts u raised are still confusing for so many people, but the u should remember one thing that XI components understands only web service language that way message interface are developed in WSDL and where as the data type are in XSD and where in Integration server used BPEL etc like this all the webservice are used.

coming to the second question u r asking that why we should soap inspite of http because http does not have structure like header ,body ,footer where as soap has a structure that is envelope , header,body in this structure the http messages will be kept.

Reward points if useful,

Best Regards,

Srinivas.D

[Former Member]

You are correct Mahesh when you say that XI internally uses SOAP. XI uses SOAP with attachments. Refere to any XI Help documentation for details.

[Former Member]

1) why we use WSDL for interfaces ? are we publishing any web services ? or WSDL can be used to other purposes also ?

We don't always use WSDL or publish web services. But its a facility from XI which enables to expose any interface as web service. also regarding ur second question, XI internally uses XI-SOAP protocol to handle the messages and henceu see SOAP messages in SXMB_MONI.

Integration server understand only XML and hence we have adapters to convert from legacy format to XML or XI-SOAP format.

Regards

Rajeev

[Former Member]

thanks for your valuable replies...but still have some problem..

1) why we use WSDL to define sender and receiver interfaces because we are not publishing any web service?( generally WSDL is used to publish web services).

2) we can work with XML messages directly over HTTP , then why we need SOAP then ?

Thanks and Regards

Mahesh.

[Former Member]

Hi Mahesh,

WSDL adheres to open standard and hence can be used and applied in all the open standard cases whether it is usage or manipulation giving it more wider acceptance and universal usage.

WSDL is open standard which is base for lot of new developments so if u have developed WSDL defintion of interface it not only can be used in SAP XI but also by other tools used as middleware

The same is the reason for XML also

Regards

[Former Member]

Hi mahesh,

Proxy generation converts non-language-specific interface descriptions in <b>WSDL</b> into executable interfaces known as Proxies.

refer this link

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/86/58cd3b11571962e10000000a11402f/frameset.htm

XI uses XML message

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/b6/0b733cb7d61952e10000000a11405a/frameset.htm

thanks and regards

Harsha

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