• SOAP - Simple Object Access Protocol
  • Compared with REST it’s older, stricter and slower
  • Uses XML to transfer data btw client and server
  • Not tightly coupled with the HTTP protocol (like REST), thus alternative protocols like SMTP, TCP, etc, can be used instead
  • SOAP does not support caching of API responses
  • Due to strict implementation guidelines, SOAP is very secure

Structure of a Request as per SOAP

// Optional Headers
Authentication: <token>
 
// Encoding
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
 
// Envelope
<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
 
// Body
	<soap:Body>
	...
	</soap:Body>
  
</soap:Envelope>

Structure of a Response as per SOAP

// Optional Headers
Authentication: <token>
 
// Encoding
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
 
// Envelope
<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
 
// Body
	<soap:Body>
	...
	</soap:Body>
 
</soap:Envelope>
 

Refs

  1. https://blog.postman.com/soap-api-definition/
  2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTGgBoFBDAY