Main differences between SOAP and RESTful web services in Java

user_190623 0
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For now I have a slight idea about the differences between SOAP and RESTful services.

My question is when I should use SOAP, and when I should use RESTful; which one is "better" when it comes to performance/speed or request handling?

I'm implementing it for the first time in RESTful (Java) and I want know more about it; I've dealt with SOAP before.

This is a follow-up question to this post.

rest soap java
11 Answers

REST is almost always going to be faster. The main advantage of SOAP is that it provides a mechanism for services to describe themselves to clients, and to advertise their existence.

REST is much more lightweight and can be implemented using almost any tool, leading to lower bandwidth and shorter learning curve. However, the clients have to know what to send and what to expect.

In general, When you're publishing an API to the outside world that is either complex or likely to change, SOAP will be more useful. Other than that, REST is usually the better option.

user_149240

SOAP Web services:

  1. If your application needs a guaranteed level of reliability and security then SOAP offers additional standards to ensure this type of operation.
  2. If both sides (service provider and service consumer) have to agree on the exchange format then SOAP gives the rigid specifications for this type of interaction.

RestWeb services:

  1. Totally stateless operations: for stateless CRUD (Create, Read, Update, and Delete) operations.
  2. Caching situations: If the information needs to be cached.
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