4 ms·
SOAP is to REST as XML is to JSON. They're all technically 7-bit and notionally human-readable, but SOAP/XML are (well, can be) so verbose as to be near-imposs
by jpatokal 13y ago
SOAP is to REST as XML is to JSON. They're all technically 7-bit and notionally human-readable, but SOAP/XML are (well, can be) so verbose as to be near-impossible to parse by hand. Comparing the "Hello World"-style simple examples on Wikipedia is instructive:
REST
http://example.com/resources/item17 http://example.com/resources/item17
SOAP
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope"> http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope">
<soap:Header>
</soap:Header>
<soap:Body>
<m:GetStockPrice xmlns:m="http://www.example.org/stock"> http://www.example.org/stock">
<m:StockName>IBM</m:StockName>
</m:GetStockPrice>
</soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>
- snogglethorpe 13y agoAmen. "Human readable" is not the same thing as human readable.
- cmccabe 13y agoAs I said earlier: The idea that making something LOOK like (but not actually be) "human text" makes anything better is an idea we should have buried along with COBOL and other mistakes from the past. But I guess not.
- mkohlmyr 13y agoAs someone who has been having to work with various SOAP APIs over the last month - amen.