What are WSDL, SOAP and REST?

A WSDL is an XML document that describes a web service. It actually stands for Web Services Description Language.

SOAP is an XML-based protocol that lets you exchange info over a particular protocol (can be HTTP or SMTP, for example) between applications. It stands for Simple Object Access Protocol and uses XML for its messaging format to relay the information.

REST is an architectural style of networked systems and stands for Representational State Transfer. It's not a standard itself, but does use standards such as HTTP, URL, XML, etc.

Example: In a simple terms if you have a web service of calculator.

WSDL: WSDL tells about the functions that you can implement or exposed to the client. For example: add, delete, subtract and so on.

SOAP: Where as using SOAP you actually perform actions like doDelete(), doSubtract(), doAdd(). So SOAP and WSDL are apples and oranges. We should not compare them. They both have their own different functionality.

Why we use SOAP and WSDL: For platform independent data exchange.

EDIT: In a normal day to day life example:

WSDL: When we go to a restaurant we see the Menu Items, those are the WSDL's.

Proxy Classes: Now after seeing the Menu Items we make up our Mind (Process our mind on what to order): So, basically we make Proxy classes based on WSDL Document.

SOAP: Then when we actually order the food based on the Menu's: Meaning we use proxy classes to call upon the service methods which is done using SOAP. :)