UDDI role in webservices?

Question

I have heard folks using the acronym UDDI in the context of web services but I am not clear what role it plays in web services. I have gone through the book Java Web Services Up and Running by Martin Kalin and it hardly mentions UDDI anywhere.

As per my understanding from the net:

UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration) is an XML-based registry for businesses worldwide to list themselves on the Internet. It helps companies to find one another on the Web and call their services. Basically, with UDDI, companies can register/describe their web services on the Internet so that other companies can find their WSDL and generate stubs out of it.

Is that correct? Say I am the producer of a web service which is for a limited set of users. I don’t have to register with UDDI, because I can give them a WSDL URL manually. Correct?

Is UDDI essentially a service similar to Google Search where a consumer can search web services based on some keywords?

Answer 1

Is UUDI essentially a service similar to a Google search where a consumer can search webservices based on some keywords?

Basically yes, although the analogy most commonly used was that of "yellow pages" of web services.

... say I am producer of some web service which is for limited set of users, I don't have to register with UDDI? I can give them a WSDL url manually. Correct?

If you provide a service for a limited number of clients (i.e. the service is not public) you can just give them the WSDL or a link to it.

UDDI nowadays makes sense inside businesses that are built on top of a service oriented architecture, where UDDI is good for having a centralized place of registering and locating web services. But a public UDDI existed mainly as an experiment for reasons explained here: Is the public UDDI movement dead or, was it ever alive?