"definitions" - The Root Element

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∟"definitions" - The Root Element

This section describes 'definitions', the root element of a WSDL document. The target namespace and other namespaces should be provided at the root element level.

"definitions" is the root element of a WSDL 1.1 document. The syntax of "definitions" looks like this:

<wsdl:definitions name="nmtoken"
  targetNamespace="tns_uri"
  xmlns:tns="tns_uri"
  xmlns:wsdl="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/"
  xmlns:xxxx="other_uri" ...>
  ...
</wsdl:definitions>

Notes on the "definitions" element:

name="nmtoken" - Provides a reference name to this WSDL document.
targetNamespace="tns_uri" - Provides a target namespace for all reference names defined in this WSDL document. tns_uri must be an absolute URI.
xmlns:tns="tns_uri" - Provides a namespace prefix for the target namespace for all reference names defined in this WSDL document. tns_uri must be the same one provided in the targetNamespace="tns_uri".
xmlns:wsdl="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/" - Provides a namespace prefix for all element names used in the WSDL core language.
xmlns:xxxx="other_uri" - Provides other namespace prefixes for element names imported from other languages as WSDL extensions.

Here is an example of "definitions" element:

<wsdl:definitions name="helloWSDL"
  targetNamespace="https://www.herongyang.com/Service/"
  xmlns:hy="https://www.herongyang.com/Service/"
  xmlns:wsdl="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/"
  xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap/"
  ...
</wsdl:definitions>

In this example, xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/wsdl/soap/" provides "soap" as the namespace prefix for element names from the WSDL 1.1 SOAP extension language.