Is SOAP now a legacy technology?

Question

Are people still writing SOAP services or is it a technology that has passed its architectural shelf life? Are people returning to binary formats?

Answer 1

The alternative to SOAP is not binary formats.

I think you're seeing a surge in the desire to leave the complexities of WS-* behind in favor of REST and JSON, because they're much simpler to use and don't require frameworks to be used successfully. The problems that WS-* ostensibly tries to solve aren't problems for most users, but they have to pay for the complexity any way.

Answer 2

I still write WS-*–based services. Somewhat surprisingly, I've had less trouble with them when trying to inter-operate with less capable developers. This is because if I send them a WSDL file, they know how to crank it through their tool and get an API they can call, while being blissfully unaware what is happening under the hood. To give customers a REST-ful service, I have to start talking to them about HTTP and XML, which they really don't understand as well as they think they do, and then I start getting a headache.

In other words, to be successful with REST, both the service provider and consumer have to know what they're doing (and they can keep things simple and come up with a great, non–WS-* solution). With WS-* technologies, it can still succeed even if only one party has a clue.

I think, however, that REST-oriented standards that are much less complicated than current WS standards, will eventually emerge, and when that happens, comparable tools will be available too.

Answer 3

I think so. RESTful solutions are more and more sensible for the vast majority of use cases; the complexities of SOAP and other RPC technologies just aren't worth the effort anymore.