more REST vs SOAP

XML is an envelope. HTTP too is an envelope.XML was meant to envelop data. But in SOAP, it envelops the message.

REST can restore xml to it’s rightful place.

So I’ve nothing against passing XML in the HTTP request, as long as the XML envelops the data, and is contained in a message envelopped by HTTP.

Nice article here.

how I would chatter to services

In a previous post, I said that we need to do away with object access protocols.There are two reason why I think that this is essential.

Firstly, we must recognize that network based services behave differently from objects. They suffer from different constraints. For example, it is not possible to “instantiate” a new instance of a network based service whenever the client acquires a “new” object of the service type. And there are other obvious differences; such as the expense of making method calls over a network as compared to making method calls on objects residing in local memory. Considering these sharp differences, it makes sense to me to treat “the service” as a different kind of animal altogether.

The second reason is the complexity of an all inclusive message format.

My lathered thoughts on SOAP

This is not about SOAP vs REST. Nor am I an authority on SOAP. It’s just that I’ve been through enough pain with SOAP and I have gotten past the need to rant. This post is about where I believe SOAP went wrong.Soap stands for Simple Object Access Protocol, we know. They tell us it is simple. But they also tell us it is an object access protocol. I think that the latter contradicts the former.Now if SOAP could drop the object from it’s name, it would simplify things a lot. In fact we would get Simple Access Protocol, which is HTTP. What’s wrong with using HTTP instead of SOAP? This is an invalid question, to be answered in a few days.An object access protocol involves serializing messages and sending them to a remote object listening over a network. The object responds to those messages in some appropriate way. Everyone has his own ideas and views about how messages should be serialized. Yes. Every platform.