WADL Support

WADL

The Web Application Description Language (WADL) is an older W3C proposal for describing web services. WADL specifications are XML documents with a fairly simple grammar (compared to OpenAPI, for instance).

Importing WADL as Website

Hyperlyn has partial support for importing WADL documents as Websites. In the description below, we use a fixed-size font in red color to represent elements of WADL specification (e.g. <resource>) and bold text with a grey background for Hyperlyn elements (e.g. Resource).

<application>

• The <doc> and <grammars> elements are ignored.
• The <resources>, <resource_type>, <method>, <representation> and <param> child elements are processed.

<resources>

• The base attribute value is used to create a Website and one or more nested Resources.
• The <resource> child elements are processed.

<resource>

• The id and queryType attributes are ignored
• The type attribute value is used to lookup <resource_type> elements.
• The path attribute value is used to create another group of Resources under the base resources.
• The <doc> child elements are ignored.
• The <param> child elements are processed.
  • Resulting parameter are attached to the last resource created above.
  • All four parameter styles are supported: template, matrix, query, header.
  • In addition, Hyperlyn recognizes the custom cookie parameter style.
  • Query, header and cookie parameters have the local scope flag set to true (not inherited by subresources).

<param>

Each param element maps to a Parameter.

• The id and href attributes are used for cross-referencing.
• The name, default and fixed values are processed.
  • The default and fixed values are used to provide a default value for the parameter, the latter taking precedence.
• The type, path, required and repeating attribute values are ignored.
• The <doc>, <option>, and <link> child elements are ignored.

<method>

The method element maps to one or more Request Templates (one per request representation).

• The id and href attributes are used for cross-referencing.
• The HTTP request method from the name attribute is used for the Request Template method.
• The <doc> child elements are ignored.
• The <request> child element is processed.
• The <response> child elements are ignored.

<request>

• The <doc> child elements are ignored.
• The <representation> and <param> child elements are processed.

<representation>

Each representation under a method is mapped to a Request Template.

• The id and href attributes are used for cross-referencing.
• The element, and profile attributes are ignored.
• The mediaType attribute is used when constructing the Request Template payload.
• The <doc> child elements are ignored.
• The <param> child elements are processed.
  • Expecting only query and plain parameters here.
  • Parameters with a query style are used to populate URL-encoded and Multipart / Form Data payloads.
  • Parameters with a plain style are expected to appear anywhere in a text payload.

<resource_type>

• The id attribute is used for lookups – corresponds to the type attribute of the <resource> element.
• The <doc> child elements are ignored.
• The <param> child elements are processed.
  • Expecting only header and query parameters here.
• The <method> and <resource> child elements are processed.

Last updated on 2023-12-05