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We have a web-based BI reporting product. We have exposed certain webservices which mainly return html content and do authentication. We are in a initial process of developing an iPhone App, which will interact with these services and get data on iPhone. There are couple of things we need to make sure before we start with the actual development process...

1) Should we use SOAP or REST (Will have to write the server part in Java) for the communication between iPhone and our web-application?

2) If we use SOAP, Can you suggest something, which will effectively create web services stubs in Objective-C.

3) In either case (SOAP or REST), what security mechanism is suggested by Apple?

We want to know your thoughts on the best and effective way communication could be done between iPhone app and backend servers (mostly written in Java)

Thanks in advance.

vikingosegundo
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hburkule
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2 Answers2

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  1. If it is an option, I'd use REST
  2. Never did it, but may this will help: http://abhicodehelp.blogspot.com/2010/12/handling-soap-with-iphone.html
  3. I'd do any HTTP-Communication using ASIHttpRequest. It is SSL-capable
Community
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vikingosegundo
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  • Thumbs up to ASIHttpRequest. That library is amazing. – chris Mar 02 '11 at 13:37
  • Thanks vikingosegundo for the prompt reply! If data to be sent for the REST call is more, how do you do it? Can we send XML over REST request from ASIHttpRequest. From what I've read, we just use URIs. What if i want to send more information as part of request? – hburkule Mar 03 '11 at 06:15
  • You can send infos as a POST-Request. Either you configure an ASIHttpRequest object to contain post-data, or u can use an convenient ASIFormDataRequest object: http://allseeing-i.com/ASIHTTPRequest/How-to-use#sending_a_form_post_with_ASIFormDataRequest – vikingosegundo Mar 03 '11 at 13:51
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In my apps I use simple URL requests returning XML / Cocoa-touch plists over https. I guess that's called "REST" -- it's simple and quick to implement. There are long flame-fests over SOAP vs. REST -- I just use this technique and get my apps done :)

Bogatyr
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