# Importing a WSDL file

The Web Service wizard assists you in creating a new Web service from a WSDL file. You must first create or import a WSDL file. A WSDL file can be created using the WSDL editor. This is described in: Creating a new WSDL file. To import a WSDL file follow the instructions below.

You can import WSDL files into the workbench and open them in the WSDL editor. Opening them in the WSDL editor provides you with an opportunity to have a structured viewing of the WSDL file.

Prerequisite: Create a project. It is recommend that you create a Web project so that the WSDL can be easily used to generate additional artifacts and deployed.

For more information on creating a Web project, refer to the Web application development documentation.

To import a WSDL file to your Web project:

1. Select your project in the J2EE Navigator pane, and from the File menu, select Import.
2. Select File System and click Next.
3. Click the Browse button on the next page of the wizard to select the directories from which you would like to add the WSDL.
4. In the import selection panes, use the following methods to select exactly the resources you want to add:
   - Expand the hierarchies in the left pane and select or clear the checkboxes that represent the folders in the selected directory. Then in the right pane, select or clear checkboxes for individual files.
   - Click Filter Types to filter the current selection for files of a specific type.
   - Click Select All to select all resources in the directory, then go through and deselect the ones that you do not want to add.
   - Click Deselect All to deselect all resources in the directory, then go through and choose individual resources to add.
5. Specify the Workbench project or folder that will be the import destination.
6. When you have finished specifying your import options, click Finish.

After you have imported a WSDL file into the workbench and opened it in the WSDL editor, you can edit it.

Alternately, you can import a WSDL file using the WSDL Explorer. For more information, refer to: Using the WSDL Explorer.

Known limitation when importing WSDL: On some Windows® systems, the "Import to File System" operation may result in saving the HTML file rather than the desired WSDL files. The workaround and fix for this problem is documented in Microsoft® Knowledge Base article Q281119. A dialog box may ask if you want to save "WSDLFileDownloader", the message is incorrect and does not affect the actual name of the file saved. If the file extension displays XML when selecting the save location for the WSDL document, ignore the incorrect extension and continue the save. The file will be saved with the WSDL extension.

Related concepts
WSDL
Editing WSDL files with the WSDL Editor

Related tasks
Creating a new WSDL file
Editing WSDL files

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