!rant
What are the exact advantages of SOAP over REST?
I've always wanted to know this :3

Apart from the index being an increasingly large and clunky XML formatted file? I'm not sure if there are any.

@runfrodorun I'm not sure why, but I get the feeling you have an opinion here :p

I guess a key advantage to SOAP is having a WSDL that clearly explains what and how the soap requests are suppose to look and behave like rather then some shitty rest api doc that isn’t maintained, also using XSD files for request validation is really handy.

The reason most people choose REST is because it’s quick and easy to build a request for, quick to modify at both ends if any changes are needed and consuming a JSON string over a mile long XML is nicer on server load and easier to work with.

I use both on a daily basis, and prefer REST personally.

I would say the possible envelop encryption/security measures in SOAP, otherwise it's just XML overhead in comparison to JSON REST

@C0D4 OpenAPI/Swagger offers the same benefits that a WSDL does, only using JSON/YAML instead of XML.

That said, the existence of either doesn't always count as sufficient documentation, although it's a lot better than nothing!

soap is xml format containing all needed information for request, can be used over any transport protocol. rest is made over http and forces to use get post put delete methods. any of these are deprecated now. just use json no matter what transport you use. if http then use post only to avoid url lenght limits.