Explain differences/advantages of SOAP vs. REST

[julien-c]

For example, is one faster than the other?

Thanks!

[Exeu]

Maybe this video could answer your question: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3OMEAU_4HI

Rest is small and lightweight and you can save some bandwidth using rest. there is no overhead like with soap.
So i recommend to use REST instead of SOAP.

[Exeu]

Of course SOAP is some kind of old fanshioned ;)

[julien-c]

Thanks Jan!

I was wondering, more specifically in the case of Amazon's Product API – maybe you've tested both on their API, is REST faster as well on this particular "real-world" case?

Thanks!

[Exeu]

I've tested both versions but without any stopwatch ;) What i defenitly can say is that the memory consumption with the REST Version is very small compared to the soap version.

You also get back an XML with REST which could be used in more different ways like the SOAP Response.
You are able to do more funny things with it like iterating over it with xpath or something else.

But it would be interesting to test the speed as well.
Maybe i will setup an test environment and measure the performance of both and then comparing it.

[Exeu]

On my NAS-Server:

SOAP Request (1079936 Bytes Memory): 0.8582 Seconds to complete
REST Request (503456 Bytes Memory): 0.7514 Seconds to complete

With the same Search Request:

object(ApaiIO\Operations\Search)#4 (1) {
["parameter":protected]=>
array(5) {
["SearchIndex"]=>
string(3) "DVD"
["Actor"]=>
string(12) "Bruce Willis"
["Keywords"]=>
string(13) "Stirb Langsam"
["ItemPage"]=>
int(3)
["ResponseGroup"]=>
array(2) {
[0]=>
string(5) "Large"
[1]=>
string(5) "Small"
}
}
}