Re: SOAP vs. REST

Jim,

SOAP reached its peak popularity in 2004, has been on the decline ever since.  Currently about 15% of APIs are SOAP, and 75% are REST.   (Everything else makes up the remaining 10%)

So... REST is what everyone uses today.  The only reason I'd consider SOAP is if a client specifically wanted it and couldn't be talked out of it.

With regards to data format, JSON is currently more popular than XML, and I also prefer JSON.  However, I must admit the difference between JSON/XML is nowhere near as important as the difference between SOAP and REST.  JSON will result in smaller documents that, therefore, transfer over the network faster.  It's more efficient to process in web environments (such as AJAX/Web2.0) because it's a subset of JavaScript, which is what browsers are optimized for.  But, XML works okay, too.

-SK

On 7/10/2019 11:21 AM, Jim Oberholtzer wrote:

Folks:


I'm about to do an incredibly scary thing, start to develop my own software
that includes the use of IWS. To suggest I'm starting from the beginning is
at best charitable. I can architect the software, that's easy. Actually
doing the development, my RPG credentials were revoked a long time ago, so
there's that learning curve. Then there are some decisions to be made in the
architecture. To that end:


So as part of the software planning process the question comes up SOAP vs.
REST. I'll assume based on the threads I've seen lately that most folks
would prefer to use JSON, therefore REST as opposed to SOAP which would use
XML.


This will be entirely IBM i based software with both traditional
languages/objects and some open source components as well. DB2 will be the
database of record.


Thoughts?



--

Jim Oberholtzer

Agile Technology Architects