In this tutorial we will see the difference between a SOAP and REST Web service. Please do read the tutorial Introduction to Web Services before this tutorial, to get a better understanding of web services.
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REST
Web Service
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SOAP
Web Service
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1.
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REST is an
architectural style, any web service following REST architecture is called
RESTFul Web Service.
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SOAP is a
protocol, a set of rules which must be followed while creating a web service
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2.
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Doesn't
impose any constraint in data format, supports multiple data formats - JSON,
XML, CSV etc.
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Supports
XML message format only
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3.
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REST
resources are exposed by the service URI and HTTP Verbs- GET, PUT, POST and
DELETE
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SOAP
exposes its named methods to be consumed by a client e.g. an open SOAP web
service "WeatherWS" exposes its various operations as methods-
GetWeatherInformationResponse, GetCityForecastByZIP, WeatherDescription etc.
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4.
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REST is
considered light weight and faster(no XML parsing is required)
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Slower
than REST because of the use of verbose XML format but considered more secure
(uses WS-security, a component of Web Service Specification for improving web
service security)
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5.
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REST APIs
consume less bandwidth as the request doesn't require SOAP headers in every
message. REST make use of HTTP headers for any meta information
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SOAP Web
services uses SOAP headers with its requests that contain meta/additional
information about the request
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6.
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RESTful
web services are easier and faster to create
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SOAP web
service follow a contract and are preferred for implementing complex logic
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7.
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Last
difference, REST stands for Representational State Transfer
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SOAP
stands for Simple Object Access Protocol
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