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can someone help me telling what is RESTful and difference with `web Service'? i tried to search but i get confused between it and web service can anyone help ?

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It's name clearly state its meaning that services provided on the web are called a web service

web service has two type REST API and SOAP API

RESTful Web Services are basically REST Architecture based Web Services. In REST Architecture everything is a resource. RESTful web services are light weight, highly scalable and maintainable and are very commonly used to create APIs for web-based applications.

SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) is a messaging protocol that allows programs that run on disparate operating systems (such as Windows and Linux) to communicate using Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and its Extensible Markup Language (XML).

Akash Jain
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  • thanks, but I want to ask you if I use `API` that is provided by any website or `google-APIs` is that `RESTful` or web service i got confused :/ –  Mar 23 '17 at 19:51
  • If the website is giving you any API then it is a web service and you have to ask about the type of API whether it is rest API or SOAP API. In simple word, RESTful API comes under web service. – Akash Jain Mar 23 '17 at 19:54
  • aha, i got it but in `http://stackoverflow.com/a/2285743/4874281` he said that `RESTful` using `HTTP` protocol to communicate too ... so what is the difference between them in this case? –  Mar 23 '17 at 19:58
  • RESTful APIs and SOAP both uses HTTP protocol but SOAP uses HTTP with XML format called WSDL file which defines all the operations where RESTful API only uses HTTP protocol which is very simple and light weight. It depends on the provider that what he provided RESTful or SOAP API. – Akash Jain Mar 23 '17 at 20:13
  • ok bro, can you give me an example of using `SOAP` better than `RESTful` and what is the relationship between than and data format like `Json` –  Mar 23 '17 at 20:23
  • I am not sure in which case SOAP is better than RESTful as SOAP was the first method in the web service family but it has many problems like it has fixed XML format, it's heavy, it maintains WSDL file so to overcome all the problem RESTul comes in picture both do the same operation, interact with third party website and RESTful is more suitable than SOAP. RESTful API uses many formats like JSON which is the most acceptable format in all the programming language. This link may help you http://nordicapis.com/rest-better-than-soap-yes-use-cases/ – Akash Jain Mar 23 '17 at 20:42
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RESTful is one kind of web service. Another kind is SOAP. I think comment in this link will help you https://stackoverflow.com/a/2285743/4874281

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manian
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  • i read it but i was asking what would be the way `web service` get it's data if not use `HTTP` protocol ? –  Mar 23 '17 at 19:43