1. A method for operating a service registry for web services, the service registry comprising a plurality of different environments for the web services, the method comprising: detecting the creation of a first endpoint definition document for a specific web service, the first endpoint definition document defining address data for the specific web service in one environment, wherein the first endpoint definition document was created manually by an author of the web service; and based on the detecting of the creation of the first endpoint definition document for the specific web service, automatically performing: querying the service registry to determine all environments that are defined in the service registry; determining the plurality of different environments based on the determination of all environments that are defined in the service registry, wherein the plurality of different environments comprise any environment for which no endpoint definition document for the specific web service exists in the service registry; accessing data defining each of the plurality of different environments associated with the service registry; creating endpoint definition document for each of the plurality of different environments for the specific web service from the first endpoint definition document and the accessed data; and storing the created respective endpoint definition document for each of the plurality of different environments using the service registry.