What is a WSDL?
Topics
•
Restricted Parts of the WSDL (p. 14)
•
Anatomy of a WSDL (p. 14)
•
WSDL Location (p. 20)
The goal of this section is to give you enough information so that you can read and use the Product
Advertising API WSDL. You typically read a WSDL to understand value types, operation definitions, and
request and response formats.
A WSDL (Web Service Description Language) is an XML document that defines the operations, parameters,
requests, and responses used in web service interactions. You can think of a WSDL as the contract that
defines the language and grammar used by web service clients and servers. When you look at the Product
Advertising API WSDL, for example, you find in it all of the Product Advertising API operation names,
parameters, request and response structures.
There is not a single WSDL. Product Advertising API, for example, has many different versions of its
WSDL—the latest one and all of its previous versions. Not only can one company use different versions
of a WSDL, every company can use its own WSDL based on its own APIs or business metrics. For that
reason, web service requests must identify the WSDL they use so the web servers know how to interpret
the requests.
In practice, Product Advertising API developers use the same version of the Product Advertising API
WSDL in every request in a session. Over time, they might send requests to the latest Product Advertising
API WSDL. The Product Advertising API WSDL is upgraded regularly.
Restricted Parts of the WSDL
The WSDL defines all Product Advertising API operation requests and responses. The majority of the
WSDL is generic. There are, however, some small portions of the WSDL that are partner specific. That
is, the use of some Product Advertising API operations is restricted to specific Amazon partners. Those
operations are marked as restricted by a notation similar to the following.
<xs:element name="RestrictedOperation" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded">
<xs:annotation>
<xs:appinfo>
<aws-se:restricted>
<aws-se:excludeFrom>public</aws-se:excludeFrom>
<aws-se:excludeFrom>partner</aws-se:excludeFrom>
</aws-se:restricted>
</xs:appinfo>
If you try to use a restricted operation and you are not the Amazon partner, Product Advertising API
returns an error message.
Anatomy of a WSDL
Topics
•
Definitions (p. 15)
•
Request Definitions (p. 16)
•
Response Definitions (p. 17)
•
Binding (p. 19)
API Version 2011-08-01
14
Product Advertising API Developer Guide
What is a WSDL?