You use the Designer to import metadata that describes web service sources, targets, or transformations. It imports metadata by importing a web service operation from a WSDL file. The Designer can import a web service operation from an original WSDL file or from a copy of a WSDL file, located on a separate server from the original. It creates one source or target definition or transformation for each web service operation that you import.

Web service operations contain input and output messages. The Designer uses the input and output messages to determine the groups and columns in the web service source and target definitions and Web Services Consumer transformations.