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On Dec 17, 2003, at 9:37 AM, Jonathan Robie wrote: > Suppose every web service were available using either REST or SOAP - > when would you choose to go with SOAP? > > I think that's a good way to pose the question in a constructive way, because it focuses on an engineering decision of WHEN to use one or the other rather than a quasi- ideological question of which is "better." (Please note, however, that SOAP 1.2 is designed to be used in a RESTful way). I'd say that the default choice is/should be to use straight XML over HTTP much as the human-oriented Web uses (X)HTML, PDF, etc. (I won't characterize that as "REST" -- the RESTfulness of the real Web, with cookies, app servers maintaining state, etc. seems wide open to debate. SOAP potentially adds value when: - You have to go over multiple networks to get to the service provider. SOAP is protocol neutral, HTTP gateways are possible, but you may get a lot "for free" with SOAP - You have various pains that standardized SOAP extensions have the aspirin for -- You have to coordinate multipart transactions, you have to encrypt or digitally sign the data, you want more automation of reliable delivery than HTTP offers, etc. - You have to interface with procedural software (or dyed in the wool procedural programmers!) and raw HTTP/REST creates a big impedance mismatch, whereas there is lots of native support for SOAP and WSDL in programming environments. [Hmm, Rich Salz has made some good points while I'm typing ...the short answer really is "if you need what SOAP headers offer, use SOAP!]
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