Consuming Existing Web Services
Keep in mind that code in an XML Web Service is object-oriented code. You don't actually write the code behind the Web Service on the machine consuming the Web Service, but you do need code that represents the Web Service code. Generating this code is the role of WSDL.
WSDL figures out the methods and types exposed by the Web Service and creates a proxy class for the Web Service. This proxy class permits Web Service consumers—you and me—to refer to the methods and types exposed by the Web Service as if that code actually resided on our workstations.
When you add a reference to a Web Service, the WSDL technology adds a Web References folder to your project and a Reference.vb file to that folder. The Reference.vb ...
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