Guide to choosing between REST vs SOAP services?

Question

Does anyone have links to documentation or guides on making the decision between REST vs. SOAP? I understand both of these but am looking for some references on the key decision points, eg, security, which may make you lean towards one or the other.

Answer 1

Google first hit seems pretty comprehensive.

I think the problem here is there are too many advocates of one or the other, may be better of googling and getting more of a handle of the pro's/con's yourself and making your own decision.

I know that sounds kinda lame, but ultimately these sort of design decisions fall down to the developer/architect working on it, and 99% of the time, the problem domain will be the deciding factor (or at least it should be), not a guide on the net.

Answer 2

Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) standard an XML language defining a message architecture and message formats, is used by Web services it contain a description of the operations. WSDL is an XML-based language for describing Web services and how to access them. will run on SMTP,HTTP,FTP etc. Requires middleware support, well defined mechanisam to define services like WSDL+XSD, WS-Policy SOAP will return XML based data SOAP provide standards for security and reliability

Representational State Transfer (RESTful) web services. they are second generation Web Services. RESTful web services, communicate via HTTP than SOAP-based services and do not require XML messages or WSDL service-API definitions. for REST no middleware is required only HTTP support is needed.WADL Standard, REST can return XML, plain text, JSON, HTML etc

t is easier for many types of clients to consume RESTful web services while enabling the server side to evolve and scale. Clients can choose to consume some or all aspects of the service and mash it up with other web-based services.

REST uses standard HTTP so it is simplerto creating clients, developing APIs 
REST permits many different data formats like XML, plain text, JSON, HTML where  as  SOAP only permits XML.
REST has better performance and scalability.
Rest and can be cached and SOAP can't 
Built-in error handling where SOAP has No error handling
REST is particularly useful PDA and other mobile devices.

REST is services are easy to integrate with existing websites.

SOAP has set of protocols, which provide standards for security and reliability, among other things, and interoperate with other WS conforming clients and servers. SOAP Web services (such as JAX-WS) are useful in handling asynchronous processing and invocation.

For Complex API's SOAP will be more usefull.

Answer 3

I Think both REST and SOAP can be used to implement similar functionality, but in general SOAP should be used when a particular feature of SOAP is needed, and the advantages of REST make it generally the best option otherwise. However, both REST and SOAP are often termed "Web services," and one is often used in place of the other, but they are totally different approaches. REST is an architectural style for building client-server applications. SOAP is a protocol specification for exchanging data between two endpoints.

I am very much agree with +Rob Cooper in his post. Yes, there are so many advocates. I have listed the difference between soap and rest.

Answer 4

There is a good flow chart you can use to help you decide between REST vs SOAP.

Link to flow chart: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3zMtAq1Rf-sdVFNdThvNmZWRGc/edit

Link to article: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140818062318-7933571-soap-vs-rest-flowchart-to-determine-the-right-web-services-protocol-for-your-needs

The other two factors that I use to make this decision are:

1) Will clients of the Service require Media Types other than XML (e.g JSON). If yes, then use REST.

2) Is the client of the Service always going to be a Application/Server (e.g. not a RIA or AJAX client). If no, this leans towards REST as it is easier to consume REST services when using AJAX.