WSDL (Web Services Description Language)
A common grammar that can be used by Web services to talk to each other. From the W3C WSDL specification:
A WSDL document defines services as collections of network endpoints, or ports. In WSDL, the abstract definition of endpoints and messages is separated from their concrete network deployment or data format bindings. This allows the reuse of abstract definitions: messages, which are abstract descriptions of the data being exchanged, and port types which are abstract collections of operations. The concrete protocol and data format specifications for a particular port type constitutes a reusable binding. A port is defined by associating a network address with a reusable binding, and a collection of ports define a service. ...
The WSDL submission allows building web-based information- and computing-services targeted to computer programs rather than to human users. It allows using an XML-based language to describe Web Services in terms of the type and number of parameters passed to a service, the type and structure of the result returned etc. WSDL also gives example mappings of WSDL descriptions onto a number of Web protocols that can be used for passing parameters and results (SOAP, URL-encoded parameter passing in HTTP and multipart MIME transported via HTTP).
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