What are WSDL SOAP and REST

Question

What is WSDL  How is it related to SOAP  Where does REST fit in all of that

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SOAP stands for Simple  sic  Object Access Protocol   It was intended to be a way to do Remote Procedure Calls to remote objects by sending XML over HTTP     WSDL is Web Service Description Language   A request ending in   wsdl  to an endpoint will result in an XML message describing request and response that a use can expect   It descibes the contract between service  amp  client   REST uses HTTP to send messages to services     SOAP is a spec  REST is a style

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Every time someone mentions SOAP WSDL  I think of objects and classes defined in xml      quot You use SOAP just the same way that you would any PHP class  However  in this case the class does not exist in the local applications file system  but at a remote site accessed over http  quot       quot If we think of using a SOAP service as just another PHP class then the WSDL document is a list of all the available class methods and properties   quot  http   www doublehops com 2009 07 07 quick-tutorial-on-getting-started-with-soap-in-php comment-page-1     and whenever someone talks about REST I think of HTTP s commands  request methods  like POST  GET and DELETE

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Wikipedia says  The Web Services Description Language is an XML-based language that provides a model for describing Web services   Put another way  WSDL is to a web service  as javadoc is to a java library    The really sweet thing about WSDL  though  is that software can generate a client and server using WSDL

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You re not going to  simply  understand something complex   WSDL is an XML-based language for describing a web service  It describes the messages  operations  and network transport information used by the service  These web services usually use SOAP  but may use other protocols   A WSDL is readable by a program  and so may be used to generate all  or part of the client code necessary to call the web service  This is what it means to call SOAP-based web services  self-describing    REST is not related to WSDL at all

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REST is light-weight in terms of encoding  much more useful for light weight devices i e  non strict APIs   REST is format independent  XML  HTML  JSON all options are available   REST provides abilities for on 2 point message transfer  not surprising since REST stands for REpresentational State Transfer  where WSDL SOAP interaction is multiple point message interaction   REST does not require a new extension for XML messages  where in WSDL SOAP this is the case   WSDL SOAP uses multiple transport protocols  REST relies on only HTTP  Therefore WSDL SOAP can be used like a RESTful way  however simple requests can be overly complicated heavy weighted   A simple analogy  REST is like a motoboy delivers your food easy and quick  XML extended WSDL SOAP more like UPS delivery  more structured and serious stuff but comes with a cost

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SOAP -  SOAP Simple object access protocal  is the application level protocal created for machine to machine interaction  Protocol defines standard rules  All the parties who are using the particular protocol should adhere to the protocol rules  Like TCP  It unwinds at transport layer  The SOAP protocol will be understood by Application layer  any application which supports SOAP - Axis2   Net       WSDL -  SOAP message consist of SoapEnevelope- SoapHeader and SoapBody  It doesn t define what would be message format  what are all the transports HTTP JMS  it supports  without this info  It is hard for any client who wants to consume the particular web service to construct the SOAP message  Even if they do  they won t be sure  it ll work all the time  WSDL is the rescue  WSDL  Web Service description Language  defines the operations  message formats and transport details for the SOAP message    REST -  REST Representational state transfer  is based on the Transport  Unlike SOAP which targets the actions  REST concerns more on the resources  REST locates the resources by using URL  example -http    serverAddress  employees employeeNumber 12345  and it depends on the transport protocol  with HTTP - GET POST  PUT  DELETE      for the actions to be performed on the resources  The REST service locates the resource based on the URL and perform the action based on the transport action verb  It is more of architectural style and conventions based

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A WSDL is an XML document that describes a web service   It actually stands for Web Services Description Language   SOAP is an XML-based protocol that lets you exchange info over a particular protocol  can be HTTP or SMTP  for example  between applications   It stands for Simple Object Access Protocol and uses XML for its messaging format to relay the information   REST is an architectural style of networked systems and stands for Representational State Transfer   It s not a standard itself  but does use standards such as HTTP  URL  XML  etc

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Some clear explanations  for SOAP and WSDL  can be found here as well   Difference between a SOAP message and a WSDL

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Example  In a simple terms if you have a web service of calculator    WSDL  WSDL tells about the functions that you can implement or exposed to the client  For example  add  delete  subtract and so on    SOAP  Where as using SOAP you actually perform actions like doDelete    doSubtract    doAdd    So SOAP and WSDL are apples and oranges  We should not compare them  They both have their own different functionality    Why we use SOAP and WSDL  For platform independent data exchange   EDIT  In a normal day to day life example   WSDL  When we go to a restaurant we see the Menu Items  those are the WSDL s   Proxy Classes  Now after seeing the Menu Items we make up our Mind  Process our mind on what to order   So  basically we make Proxy classes based on WSDL Document    SOAP  Then when we actually order the food based on the Menu s  Meaning we use proxy classes to call upon the service methods which is done using SOAP

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A WSDL document describes a webservice  It specifies the location of the service and the methods of the service using these major elements   data types using in webservice  data elements for each operation  describe the operations that can be performed and the messages envolved   SOAP  Simple Object Access Protocol  is a messaging protocol that allows programs that run on disparate operating systems to communicate using http and xml

[web-services] What are WSDL, SOAP and REST?

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