Webservices and REST vs SOAP

Web Service:

Web service is a client server application and method of communication between two devices or applications over network. Web service can be implemented in many languages like Php, .net, Java etc. and it can be access by any language client application in short there is no dependence of language to access web services.

There are mainly two types of web services.

1)    SOAP web services.

2)    RESTful web services.

SOAP web services:

SOAP stands for Simple Object Access Protocol. It is a XML-based protocol for accessing web services.

SOAP provides the envelope for sending Web Services messages over the Internet/Internet. It is part of the set of standards specified by the W3C

The SOAP envelope contains two parts:

1)      An optional header providing information on authentication, encoding of data, or how a recipient of a SOAP message should process the message.

2)      The body that contains the message. These messages can be defined using the WSDL specification.

SOAP defines its own security known as WS Security and SOAP is a W3C recommendation for communication between two applications.

RESTful web services:

REST stands for REpresentational State Transfer and it is the software architectural style of the World Wide Web.

REST has become one of the most important technologies for Web applications. Its importance is likely to continue growing quickly as all technologies move towards an API orientation. Every major development language now includes frameworks for building RESTful Web services. As such, it is important for Web developers and architects to have a clear understanding of REST and RESTful services.

RESTful Web Services are fast because there is no strict specification like SOAP. It consumes less bandwidth and resource.

RESTful web service permits different data format such as Plain Text, HTML, XML and JSON

REST vs SOAP:

If we compare both web services both have their own advantage and disadvantages. It cannot be said which one is best it totally depend on what is requirement of application and what kind of secure communication going to be used in application.

Here is comparison in both web services

1)      SOAP stands for Simple Object Access Protocol. REST stands for REpresentational State Transfer.

2)      SOAP is a XML based messaging protocol and REST is not a protocol but an architectural style and it allows Plain Text, HTML, XML and JSON.

3)       REST follows stateless model whereas SOAP has specifications for stateful implementation as well.

4)      SOAP has a set of standard specifications. WS-Security is the specification for security in the implementation. It is a detailed standard providing rules for security in application implementation. Like this we have separate specifications for messaging, transactions etc. Whereas REST does not has dedicated concepts for each of these. REST predominantly relies on HTTPS.

5)      REST requires HTTP for transport, SOAP is independent from a specific transport type.

6)      SOAP supports distributed communication whereas REST assumes communication between only two endpoints.

7)      REST supports scalability better than SOAP. For instance, REST has read caching and conditional GET, whereas SOAP does not.

8)      RESTful Web Services are fast because there is no strict specification like SOAP. It consumes less bandwidth and resource

Selection of web service for application:

 Choice to use SOAP or REST is dependent on a number of factors including security, transactional, performance, development and other application requirements. One is not clearly better than the other in all situations. However, for most Web service applications, REST currently seems to be the favorite except when specific SOAP features are absolutely required.

SOAP is mostly preferred in the applications which require higher security like banking and financial application etc. whereas in other scenario most of the applications using REST.