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I read from another link in stack overflow that

  1. SOAP is suitable for Distributed Computing , Data is more formatted, Easy to develop (Since there are a lot of tools that will help in the development ) But heavy and less human readable and complex.

  2. Rest is less machine readable, hard to develop since the lack of tools but light weight and designed for point to point communication and is the new technology

I want to create a webservice which will be invoked from android devices and the data exchange is only between the android device and the Google App engine deployed web service.

So In this case what will be your choice , will you go for REST or SOAP ?

In both cases which implementation of APIS should I choose ? Java is the programming language of my choice

Community
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Ajay
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  • This question solicitates debate, so it would be better that you make a proof of concept based on your needs, develop 2 or 3 services using JAX-WS and JAX-RS, get your results and decide. – Luiggi Mendoza Jan 15 '13 at 17:31
  • Only REST. Never use SOAP. – vortexwolf Jan 15 '13 at 17:33
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    In a mobile environment I would say REST would be preferable since it does take more processing and battery power to use SOAP in that environment. Your users batteries will appreciate it :) – Manuel Quinones Jan 15 '13 at 17:37

1 Answers1

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REST seems to be the general model for Web development, and is the approach I would suggest. You are right there may be more overhead parsing the response, and understanding the proper URL structure, etc.

The standard http APIs are suitable for REST development, so should require no additional packages to implement.

I personally don't like all the overhead of the SOAP model - it may make distribution easier, but requires a lot of overhead to get working.

Note: since this is not a programming question -maybe there are better places to ask this?

Booger
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  • Thanks Booger , Though I am surpirsed by your remark "This is not a programming question" – Ajay Jan 15 '13 at 19:03
  • Just that is a conceptual question - not a code error, or something related to writing apps (it is conceptual - asking about specific approaches, where I think SO is designed to solve specific coding errors). Not a big deal. – Booger Jan 15 '13 at 19:42