WSDL


WSDL

WSDL is an XML format for describing network services as a set of endpoints operating on messages containing either document-oriented or procedure-oriented information. The operations and messages are described abstractly, and then bound to a concrete network protocol and message format to define an endpoint. Related concrete endpoints are combined into abstract endpoints (services). WSDL is extensible to allow description of endpoints and their messages regardless of what message formats or network protocols are used to communicate, however, the only bindings described in this document describe how to use WSDL in conjunction with SOAP 1.1, HTTP GET/POST, and MIME.

SOAP

It is important for application development to allow Internet communication between programs.
Today's applications communicate using Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) between objects like DCOM and CORBA, but HTTP was not designed for this. RPC represents a compatibility and security problem; firewalls and proxy servers will normally block this kind of traffic.
A better way to communicate between applications is over HTTP, because HTTP is supported by all Internet browsers and servers. SOAP was created to accomplish this.
SOAP provides a way to communicate between applications running on different operating systems, with different technologies and programming languages.

EVALUATION ORIENTED SYSTEM

Evaluation-oriented information provision is a function performed by many systems that serve as personal assistants, advisors, or sales assistants. Five general tasks are distinguished which need to be addressed by such systems. For each task, techniques employed in a sample of systems are discussed, and it is shown how the lessons learned from these systems can be taken into account with a set of unified techniques that make use of well-understood concepts and principles from Multi-Attribute Utility Theory and Bayesian networks. These techniques are illustrated as realized in the dialog system PRACMA.