Innovation
Is SOAP a washout?
Are more developers turning their backs on SOAP for Web services? Redmonk's James Governor just posted this provocative thought at his MonkChips blogsite: "Evidence continues to mount that developers can' t be bothered with SOAP and the learning requirements associated with use of the standard for information interchange.
Are more developers turning their backs on SOAP for Web services? Redmonk's James Governor just posted this provocative thought at his MonkChips blogsite:
"Evidence continues to mount that developers can' t be bothered with SOAP and the learning requirements associated with use of the standard for information interchange. It is often described as 'lightweight', but its RPC remote procedure call roots keep showing. ...semantically rich platforms like flickr and Amazon are being accessed by RESTful methods, not IBM/MS defined 'XML Web Services' calls."
Governor observes that none of the big vendors talk about REST, mainly due to vested interest in the more elaborate SOAP-based messaging infrastructure. "Its interesting that in a week when the bug guys, including Gartner, have trumpeted the arrival of UDDI 3.0, the world is quietly getting on with more interesting projects. ...anyone that defines aWeb Service using SOAP in the definition is missing out on where theaction is. Distinctions between enterprise and 'consumer' are breakingdown. REST is evidently where that convergence is being played out, notWS-I."
In physics, the right answer is usually the simplest one. As we all are destined to be both providers and consumers of Web services, are we more likely to turn to the simpler method? Is Governor on to something here?
"Evidence continues to mount that developers can' t be bothered with SOAP and the learning requirements associated with use of the standard for information interchange. It is often described as 'lightweight', but its RPC remote procedure call roots keep showing. ...semantically rich platforms like flickr and Amazon are being accessed by RESTful methods, not IBM/MS defined 'XML Web Services' calls."
Governor observes that none of the big vendors talk about REST, mainly due to vested interest in the more elaborate SOAP-based messaging infrastructure. "Its interesting that in a week when the bug guys, including Gartner, have trumpeted the arrival of UDDI 3.0, the world is quietly getting on with more interesting projects. ...anyone that defines aWeb Service using SOAP in the definition is missing out on where theaction is. Distinctions between enterprise and 'consumer' are breakingdown. REST is evidently where that convergence is being played out, notWS-I."
In physics, the right answer is usually the simplest one. As we all are destined to be both providers and consumers of Web services, are we more likely to turn to the simpler method? Is Governor on to something here?