What are WSDL, SOAP and REST?

web-services rest soap wsdl
javaguy picture javaguy · Sep 21, 2010 · Viewed 193.2k times · Source

What is WSDL? How is it related to SOAP? Where does REST fit in all of that?

Answer

keith_c picture keith_c · Sep 21, 2010

A WSDL is an XML document that describes a web service. It actually stands for Web Services Description Language.

SOAP is an XML-based protocol that lets you exchange info over a particular protocol (can be HTTP or SMTP, for example) between applications. It stands for Simple Object Access Protocol and uses XML for its messaging format to relay the information.

REST is an architectural style of networked systems and stands for Representational State Transfer. It's not a standard itself, but does use standards such as HTTP, URL, XML, etc.

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