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What is the difference between SEI and WSDL

I am trying to learn webservices using j2ee. I am not able to completely understand the difference between a WSDL and a Service Endpoint Interface. What is the purpose of each and are both of these auto generated?

Solution

  • WSDL is super set : XML-based interface description language

    SEI is one of element in WSDL : A collection of operation elements describing the logical interface of a service(defines the methods to be exposed as a Web service).

    enter image description here This picture tells relationship between SEI and WSDL. bottom side red box in WSDL 2.0 (in the WSDL 1.x interface was called portType)

    Reason to compile to class. Java did not recognize XML file. It needs to convert to Java class object by Jaxb unmarshaling (opposite direction called marshaling)

    References :

    Web Services Description Language

    introduction-to-jaxb

    Introducing WSDL Contracts