'Error import WSDL' in SoapUI

Although it has been a while since I posted about SoapUI I am still receiving questions about the tool. The most frequently asked question is how to solve the error ‘Error import WSDL’ so I will post the steps I took in the past to solve this error, hoping that this might help you. The first step I usually take is to try to open the WSDL in a web browser.
If this is also not working and the WSDL runs on a machine on the world wide web then you have 3 options:

1. No access to internet

Easy to check if that is the case but you might just want to check it out to make sure

2. the link to the wsdl is dead

This often occurs if the source where you got the link from is rather old, like an article on the net that was posted in 2005.

3. a typo is made in the link

Make sure you have the right url with all ‘?’ and ‘/’ in the right place

If the WSDL in the browser is also not working and the WSDL runs on a machine in your local network then please check the following:

1. Make sure you can access the machine over HTTP

Try to ping the machine name or IP address to see if it is accessible from your machine. Although there is a chance the machine is accessible without being ping-able it often gives a good indication.

2. Make sure the web server hosting the wsdl (and webservice) is up

Point your browser to the machine and check if there is a web server running on port 80/8080/8000 or something like that. If the web server is down also the WSDL will not be found.

3. a typo is made in the link

Make sure you have the right url with all ‘?’ and ‘/’ in the right place

If the WSDL is showing up in the browser and the WSDL runs on a machine on the world wide web then you might check the following:

• Need a proxy to access the net

Check to see if your web browser uses a proxy to get access to the net. This is very common if your computer is connected to a companies network. If so, then add this proxy to the preferences in Soap UI so it will use the same proxy.

• a typo is made in the link

Make sure you have the right url with all ‘?’ and ‘/’ in the right place. I also recently heard leading or trailing spaces might lead to unexpected behaviour in SoapUI so please make sure to remove them.

If the WSDL is showing up in the browser and the WSDL runs on a machine in your local network then please check the following:

• a typo is made in the link

Make sure you have the right url with all ‘?’ and ‘/’ in the right place. I also recently heard leading or trailing spaces might lead to unexpected behaviour in SoapUI so please make sure to remove them.

• use the host’s IP address instead of host name

I once got the situation it was only working with the IP address, but apparently not able to resolve the host name, so you could try this.

So, these are the things you could check. I know there will be much more reasons why this error might show up (how about https access for example), but I hope that in your case these steps will help to solve it. If you know other solutions to this problem just let me know, so I can add them to this list.