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Add Web Reference Dialog Box

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This dialog box allows you to browse for Web services and add Web references to your Visual Studio .NET projects. A Web reference enables you to use objects and methods provided by an Web service in your code. You can search for Web services on a local machine, or on servers within your company's local area network, or search the Internet for commercial Web services.

After adding a Web Reference to your current project, you can use any element or functionality provided by that Web service within your application. For more information, see XML Web Services Overview.

**Security Note   **When you open a project for editing that includes a Web reference, a local proxy file for the Web service consumed runs in a process of devenv.exe started by a trusted user, yourself. Opening projects or components in the integrated development environment (IDE) can execute code on your local machine. For more information, see Web Application Security at Design Time in Visual Studio and Code Access Security.

Icons

  • Back

    Returns to the previous page displayed.

  • Forward

    Returns to the page that was visible when you selected the back button.

  • Stop

    Halts a URL search.

  • Refresh

    Refreshes the contents of the active page in the left browser pane.

  • Home

    Displays the "Start Browsing for Web Services" page in the left browser pane.

  • Go

    Activates a search for Web services at the address entered in the URL field.

Fields

  • URL
    Specify the URL for a Web service you want your application to consume. Use the drop-down list box to select a service previously used, or enter a new path, starting with https://... or ftp://.... A complete Web reference URL includes a domain name, a Web service name, and the name of its .asmx, .wsdl, .disco, or .xsd discovery file. For example, you might enter

    https://DomainName/WebServiceName/DiscoveryFile.asmx

    The Start Browsing for Web Services pane will search this path for Web services and display descriptions for any services found.

    Note   The .NET Framework does not auto-detect proxy servers. If you are developing a Web application on a machine that is behind a firewall, and your application will consume Web services found outside of the firewall, you must include the address and port of your network's proxy server in the URL. Ask your network administrator to furnish this part of the URL path.

  • Start Browsing for Web Services
    This Web browser pane provides links to lists of available Web services. If clicking on one of these links discovers any Web services, you can then select the name of any Web service listed to retrieve descriptions of its supported methods from the Web Services Description Language (WSDL) file for the service.

    Note   For help on browsing Web services, see Locating XML Web Services. For more on WSDL, see A Quick Introduction to WSDL.

    • Web services on the local machine - select this link to list Web services and discovery documents available on your own Visual Studio .NET developer machine.

      Note   For this link to return information, Internet Information Services (IIS) must be running on your local machine. For more information on IIS, see the system Help for the IIS Control Panel or Microsoft Management Console (MMC) snap-in. For programming snippets, see Hosting Remote Objects in Internet Information Services (IIS).

    • Browse UDDI Servers on the local network - select this link to list servers available within your local area network that provide Web services and discovery documents using the Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration (UDDI) protocols.

      Note   Standard UDDI protocols enable quick and programmatic discovery of a company's available Web services. For further information, see the Microsoft UDDI Web site at https://uddi.Microsoft.com.

    • UDDI Directory - select this link to search the Microsoft UDDI Business Registry for businesses that provide Web services. Use this directory to locate Web services that your application will consume.

    • Test Microsoft UDDI Directory - select this link to search for Web services that are not yet of production quality. You can use this directory to post and test Web services during their development.

  • Web services found at this URL
    Lists the names of any Web services found at the specified URL. When you create a Web reference, it will refer to this entire list. To isolate a single Web service, hover over the desired item in this list. A tool tip will show the URL of the desired service. Enter the URL for that service and press Go. The list should then display only the desired Web service. You can then add a reference to just that service.

  • Web reference name
    Enter a unique name in this field that you will use in your code to access the selected Web service programmatically. If the name entered matches an existing Web service, a number is appended that makes the new reference unique.

  • Add Reference
    After locating the Web service you want to use, select this button to create a new Web reference in your application. This button is enabled when one or more Web services available at the address entered in the "URL" field are listed in the "Web Services found" field. A new Web reference with the name given in the "Web reference name" field will appear in Solution Explorer under the Web References node for the current project. This new Web reference will make all of the Web services listed available to your application.

    Note   To regenerate the proxy class for a Web service using the latest copy of its .WSDL description file, right-click on the Web reference in Solution Explorer and select Update Web Reference from its shortcut menu.

See Also

Adding and Removing Web References | Accessing XML Web Services in Managed Code | The proxy settings on this computer are not configured correctly for Web discovery. | Hosting Remote Objects in Internet Information Services (IIS) | Remoting Example: Hosting in Internet Information Services (IIS) | Projects, User Interface Elements

Internet: Internet Information Services 5.1 | Getting Started with Internet Information Services (IIS) | World Wide Web Consortium | WSDL Specification | UDDI.org | UDDI Registrars | Microsoft UDDI Site. |