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SOAP vs. REST is not simply XML+WSDL vs. JSON+OpenAPI. REST is resource-focused, where SOAP is operation-focused. REST takes advantage of HTTP's built-in featur

SOAP vs. REST is not simply XML+WSDL vs. JSON+OpenAPI. REST is resource-focused, where SOAP is operation-focused. REST takes advantage of HTTP's built-in features (verbs, caching, etc.) in ways that SOAP doesn't (SOAP is basically RPC tunneled over HTTP POSTs). I work on an API team that is in the early stages of switching from SOAP services to REST (using Swagger/OpenAPI). Shifting mindsets from RPC-based to resource-based APIs is challenging, but very beneficial (of course, there are still use-cases for RPC-style APIs).

icebraining 9y ago
Ah, then I had a misconception of OpenAPI; my perception is that it was mostly used by people who wanted to use REST like how they used SOAP (using URLs and such but still fundamentally RPC). Does that mean OpenAPI lets you model and describe a real hypermedia application, following the REST constraints? Including ignoring the URLs and focusing on media representations and their relationships?