WSDL: Files with the WSDL extension contain web service
interfaces expressed in the Web Service Description
Language (WSDL). WSDL is a standard XML document type
specified by the World Wide Web Consortium.
WSDL files are used to communicate interface information
between web service producers and consumers. A WSDL
description allows a client to utilize a web service’s
capabilities without knowledge of the implementation
details of the web service.
Disco: It is a Microsoft technology for publishing and
discovering Web Services. DISCO can define a document
format along with an interrogation algorithm, making it
possible to discover the Web Services exposed on a given
server. DISCO makes it possible to discover the
capabilities of each Web Service (via documentation) and
how to interact with it. To publish a deployed Web Service
using DISCO, you simply need to create a .disco file and
place it in the vroot along with the other service-related
configuration.
DISCO is the discovery file which gives path to the
Webservices
It contains WSDL(Web Service Description Language)
When one searches for the Web Services, it will go to the
DISCO whcih gives actual info. about the particular
Webservices.
Discovery with DISCO
In the past, most consumers found out about new Web
Services (and their endpoint addresses)
by browsing the Web, receiving an e-mail, or by word-of-
mouth. Now, DISCO can define a
document format along with an interrogation algorithm,
making it possible to discover the
Web Services exposed on a given server. DISCO also makes it
possible to discover the
capabilities of each Web Service (via documentation) and
how to interact with it (via WSDL).
To publish a deployed Web Service using DISCO, you simply
need to create a .disco file and
place it in the vroot along with the other service-related
configuration files, like so:
The .disco document is an XML document that simply contains
links to other resources that
describe the Web Service, much like an HTML file that
contains human-readable documentation
or a WSDL file containing the interface contract. The
following is a DISCO document skeleton
that will serve as a starting point.
<disco:discovery
xmlns:disco="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/disco/">
<!-- references go here -->
</disco:discovery>
Notice that the root element has the name discovery from
the
http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/disco/ namespace. The references
to other resources are placed
within the discovery element:
<disco:discovery
xmlns:disco="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/disco/"
xmlns:scl="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/disco/scl/">
<!-- reference to other DISCO document -->
<disco:discoveryRef
ref="related-services/default.disco"/>
<!-- reference to WSDL and documentation -->
<scl:contractRef ref="math.asmx?wsdl"
docRef="math.asmx"/>
</disco:discovery>
The main element is contractRef, which belongs to a
different namespace than the rest of the
DISCO-related elements. contractRef has two attributes, ref
and docRef, which point to the
WSDL and documentation files for a given Web Service.
The discoveryRef element lets you link the given DISCO
document to other DISCO documents.
This linking allows you to create a Web of related DISCO
documents spanning multiple
machines and even multiple organizations. This is
especially useful if the DISCO client
utility provides a mechanism to traverse the links. These
are the only elements that you
have to be concerned about in the DISCO namespace.
DISCO Client Utilities
There are currently two tools available for discovering the
DISCO document once it's in
place. One is a command-line client called disco.exe; the
other is the Add Web Reference