How to Import and Add a WSDL Reference in BizTalk Server

How To import Add Reference from WSDL file

Sandro Pereira
Jun 16, 2009
2 min read

In BizTalk Server, communicating with external systems via SOAP requires a clear “contract.” This contract is the WSDL (Web Services Description Language) file. 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.

Importing this file into your project is the first step toward successful integration.

📝 One-Minute Brief

Consuming external web services in BizTalk requires importing their WSDL definitions. This guide walks you through the process of adding a Web Reference in Visual Studio, which automatically generates the necessary schemas, multi-part message types, and orchestration ports needed to communicate with the service. It’s the fastest way to bridge BizTalk with SOAP-based external systems.

Importing a WSDL file or adding a reference to a SOAP endpoint is a very easy operation, but I always forget the syntax of the URL

Right-click on the project name and select Add Web Reference.
In the Add Web Reference dialog box, type in the URL: file://fisical_pathfilename.wsdl.
Type a Web reference name and click the Add Reference button

Author: Sandro Pereira

Sandro Pereira lives in Portugal and works as a consultant at DevScope. In the past years, he has been working on implementing Integration scenarios both on-premises and cloud for various clients, each with different scenarios from a technical point of view, size, and criticality, using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft BizTalk Server and different technologies like AS2, EDI, RosettaNet, SAP, TIBCO etc. He is a regular blogger, international speaker, and technical reviewer of several BizTalk books all focused on Integration. He is also the author of the book “BizTalk Mapping Patterns & Best Practices”. He has been awarded MVP since 2011 for his contributions to the integration community. View all posts by Sandro Pereira

12 thoughts on “How To import Add Reference from WSDL file”

Thanks! I am still fairly new to ASP and had no idea you could reference a folder too. Helped me a lot.

Thanks it made my easy..

Thanks 🙂

That’s awesome, cheers!

Thank you

thanks

Wow 🙂

So simple! And I was trying 1293482 ways to do that!
Thanks!

I’ve been looking at MSDN tutorials and googling for hours because I was getting an access denied error. None of the information worked – except yours. Thank you soooo much for this info.

Thanks
Thank you

Reblogged this on Gihan's Blog.

Thanks bro! You have saved me from days of headache. I tried so many suggestion online.
Immediately I stumbled on you blog my implementation became a history. I really appreciate!