Restful vs Soapbased

Question

Friends, If I need to make a choice between using Restful versus Soap based web services, what factors should be considered in making this choice. Assuming that my applications can support both Restful and Soap based web services - what pros and cons need to be considered ?

Thanks, avajurug

Answer 1

This has been discussed many times already. REST fits into the full HTTP stack much better, while SOAP merely uses HTTP as a transport protocol. Since SOAP works on one URI with POST, caching middleware generally won't work, unlike REST which represents each resource with its own URI. Go read the existing questions for more.

Or read Roy Fielding's dissertation or his blog for more info on REST.