Web Services Process Flow

A service provider describes its service using WSDL. This definition is published to a directory of services. The directory could use Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI). Other forms of directories can also be used. Service consumer issues one or more queries to the directory to locate a service and determine how to communicate with that service. Part of the WSDL provided by the service provider is passed to the service consumer and this tells the service consumer what the requests and responses are for the service provider.