REST vs SOAP!
When you talk about SOAP and REST before must understanding what the term is defined.
SOAP vs REST are both means of accessing web services. These two terms are represented:
SOAP- Simple Object Access Protocol (Service-Oriented Web Service)
REST- Representational State Transfer. (Resource-Oriented Web Services)
Before understanding these two concepts must know about the web services.
Web service
Services provided from one application to another web or internet.
The standard way to define the web service as:
web services include any software, application, or cloud technology that provides standardized web protocols (HTTP or HTTPS) to interoperate, communicate, and exchange data messaging — usually XML (Extensible Markup Language) — throughout the internet.
The main feature of web services is that applications can be written in various languages and are still able to communicate by exchanging data with one another via a web service between clients and servers.
How does Web Service work?
Web service is a framework for conversation between two computers. These computers are communicating over the web. The clients send the request over the internet and the server receives the request and processes it and returns the response as a message.
For example, Suppose the browser which is a request for the web page it receives an HTML and other related content in response. Today the modern web services handle HTTP, but the format of sending and receiving data differs greatly.
For using the web service that requires API, It’s Application Program Interface. It will define everything that needs to communicate the Webservice. There are various APIs are available today.
SOAP, Restful, JSON, and others are used for the message format and Request of action using HTTP verbs which are POST, GET, PUT, PATCH, DELETE.
POST- Used to create a resource
GET- Used to read/ retrieve the resources
PUT- Used to modify or update resources
PATCH- Used to small modifications in the resource.
DELETE- Used for deleting the resources.
Web Service Features
1. XML based- Web services use XML at data description and data transportation layers
2. Loosely coupled- Client and the server system logic are loosely bound.
3. Support Remote Procedure Calls(RPC)- Web services allow consumers to invoke procedures, functions, and methods on remote objects using an XML-based protocol.
Web Service Architecture
Every framework needs to complete their works as some of the templates as like web services having an architecture. The Web Services Architecture consists of three different roles;
● Provider- It creates web services and makes it available to client applications who want to use them.
● Requestor- Client application needs to contact with web services. For example: Java, .net
● Broker- An application that provides access to the UDDI. The UDDI, as discussed in the earlier topic enables the client application to locate the web service.
Now let’s see the SOAP and REST….
SOAP
It’s a transport-independent messaging protocol. It’s based on transferring XML data as SOAP Messages. Each message has XML Document. Only the structure of the XML document follows a specific pattern, but not the content. The SOAP and Webservices send via HTTP which is standard protocol.
SOAP can operate via various protocols like HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), TCP (Transmission Control Protocol), or UDP (User Datagram Protocol).
SOAP message consists of:
- Each SOAP document needs to have a root element that is <Envelope> element. This is the first element of the XML document.
- The “envelope” part is divided into two parts. which is having one is Header and next is Body.
- The header part contains the routing data that information tells the XML document to which client it needs to be sent.
- The body part contains the actual message.
The diagram below shows a simple example of communication via SOAP.
REST
Stands for Representational State Transfer. A REST web service uses HTTP and supports several HTTP methods: GET, POST, PUT or DELETE. It also offers simple CRUD-oriented services. It is an architectural style for providing standards between computer systems on the web, making it easier for systems to communicate with each other.
This web service is a light weighted, scalable, and service is build on REST architecture.
REST Design Principles
- Everything is a Resource.
- Each Resource is identifiable by a unique URI.
- Use standard HTTP methods.
- Allow multiple representations for the same recourse.
- Communication should always be stateless.
Attributes of Restful Web Services
- Client-server- Most important aspect of Rest API. A REST API follows client-server architecture and these both should be separate which means the server and client can not be the same server.
- Cache: A REST API encourages the browser and server caching process to enhance its processing speed
- Stateless: In REST, all calls are treated as a new call and any previous call state will not give any advantage to the new call. Hence during each call, it is required to maintain all the necessary authentication and other information.
Pros & Cons — SOAP vs REST
- REST is an architectural style. SOAP is a Protocol.
- REST has better performance rather than the SOAP.
- REST is more dynamic
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