# SOAP or XML-RPC **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [April 18, 2007, 12:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/soap-or-xml-rpc/92336 "2007-04-18T12:17:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![guest](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@guest](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/guest)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2007, 12:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/soap-or-xml-rpc/92336/1 "2007-04-18T12:17:06Z")
I need to use a third party web service and have a choice between a SOAP or XML-RPC interface. I have never used either and was wondering what people recommend in general and which is best supported/friendly with Rails. Thanks, Bob ---
**Author:** ![guest](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@guest](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/guest)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2007, 2:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/soap-or-xml-rpc/92336/2 "2007-04-18T14:58:07Z")
Stay as far away from SOAP as you can possibly get. This post explains why: [http://wanderingbarque.com/nonintersecting/2006/11/15/the-s-stands-for-simple/](http://wanderingbarque.com/nonintersecting/2006/11/15/the-s-stands-for-simple/) XML-RPC will work, though depending on how the webservice is supposed to work (are you dealing with data or are you telling the server to start some sort of processing?), REST may be your best bet. REST is now natively supported in Rails as of 1.2.3, and while I don’t know about hooking up XML-RPC, I’m sure there’s a plugin or two around to do this. Jason ---
**Author:** ![guest](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@guest](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/guest)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2007, 3:45pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/soap-or-xml-rpc/92336/3 "2007-04-18T15:45:18Z")
For the record, I did not mention anything about soap4r, I’m talking about SOAP in general. No matter what language you’re using, I _highly_ recommend you stay away from SOAP. Read the article I posted, even the developers of SOAP have deprecated the original acronym. The system is bloated, confusing, and even worse, NOT a standard. If you’re choice is XML-RPC or SOAP, then go XML-RPC. Jason ---
**Author:** ![guest](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@guest](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/guest)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2007, 3:04pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/soap-or-xml-rpc/92336/4 "2007-04-18T15:04:37Z")
On 4/18/07, Jason R. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Stay as far away from SOAP as you can possibly get. This post explains why: > [http://wanderingbarque.com/nonintersecting/2006/11/15/the-s-stands-for-simple/](http://wanderingbarque.com/nonintersecting/2006/11/15/the-s-stands-for-simple/) A lot of people criticise Ruby’s soap4r implementation, but I wonder whether the perceived problem with soap4r is simply due to the fact that it is a different WS-stack to the one being communicated with (a complete no-no in WS-\* land). soap4r is an implementation of a developers interpretation of an incomplete specification. Like _all_ WS-\* stacks. The accepted wisdom in WS-\* implementations, is that if you are required to use a web service from a specific site or vendor, you use the _same_ stack. > XML-RPC will work, though depending on how the webservice is supposed to > work (are you dealing with data or are you telling the server to start some > sort of processing?), REST may be your best bet. REST is now natively > supported in Rails as of 1.2.3, and while I don’t know about hooking up > XML-RPC, I’m sure there’s a plugin or two around to do this. Well the OP stated that his 2 choices were XML-RPC or SOAP. There wasn’t a REST option (which is far superior), of the 2, pick XML-RPC, Ruby is meant to have a really good implementation actually. ---
**Author:** ![guest](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/g/8dc957/32.png) [@guest](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/guest)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2007, 7:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/soap-or-xml-rpc/92336/5 "2007-04-18T19:19:45Z")
Guest wrote: > I need to use a third party web service and have a choice between a SOAP > or XML-RPC interface. I have never used either and was wondering what > people recommend in general and which is best supported/friendly with > Rails. > > Thanks, > Bob I second XML-RPC. The SOAP implementation in ruby has almost no documentation and the even the code is difficult to read. XML-RPC at least has some documentation, and I’m working on more. jfmiller