Rest Services

 

Rest Services

 

REST versus SOAP. It's been an issue for a while now. And really, they’re just two answers to the same question: how to access web services.

 

What is SOAP?

 

SOAP is a protocol that was planned before REST and came into the image. The fundamental thought behind planning SOAP was to guarantee that projects based on various platforms and programming languages could exchange data in a simple way. SOAP stands for Simple Object Access Protocol.

What is REST? 

• REST is not HTTP but it is using HTTP 
• REST is not protocol but it using some protocol
• REST is a guideline to build a performance and scalable system on web

REST gives a lighter-weight option. Numerous designers discovered SOAP uncomfortable and difficult to utilize. For instance, working with SOAP in JavaScript implies composing a huge load of code to perform basic tasks since you should make the necessary XML structure without fail.

 

Rather than utilizing XML to make a request, REST (normally) depends on a straightforward URL. In certain circumstances you should give extra data, however most web administrations utilizing REST depend solely on utilizing the URL approach. REST can utilize four diverse HTTP 1.1 action words (GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, and DELETE) to perform assignments.

 

Dissimilar to SOAP, REST doesn't need to utilize XML to give the reaction. You can discover REST-based web benefits that produce the data in Command Separated Value (CSV), JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) and Really Simple Syndication (RSS). The fact of the matter is you can get the output you need, in a structure that is not difficult to parse inside the language you're utilizing for your application.

Challenges in REST API

1. Lack of Security – REST does not impose any sort of security like SOAP. This is why REST is very appropriate for public available URL's, but when it comes down to confidential data being passed between the client and the server, REST is the worst mechanism to be used for web services.
2.  Lack of state – Most web applications require a stateful mechanism. For example, if you had a purchasing site which had the mechanism of having a shopping cart, it is required to know the number of items in the shopping cart before the actual purchase is made. Unfortunately, the burden of maintaining this state lies with the client, which just makes the client application heavier and difficult to maintain.