Only YOU can prevent the SOAP Zombie Apocalypse!

1. Lessons from the
Failure of SOAP
Clay Loveless
Founder, Jexy
Glue Conference
May 25, 2011
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

2. It all started out
happily enough.
•SOAP used the World Wide Web!
•Everyone had the World Wide Web!
•SOAP beat the crazy stuff that
preceded it!
•Imagine the possibilities! The future
is ours!
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

3. A Look Back at SOAP
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

4. A Look Back at SOAP
1998: XML 1.0 becomes
W3C recommendation
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

5. A Look Back at SOAP
1998: XML 1.0 becomes
W3C recommendation
1998: CORBA begins dying,
SOAP seems like good idea
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

6. A Look Back at SOAP
1998: XML 1.0 becomes
W3C recommendation
1999: SOAP 1.0
1998: CORBA begins dying,
SOAP seems like good idea
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

7. A Look Back at SOAP
1998: XML 1.0 becomes
W3C recommendation
1999: SOAP 1.0
1998: CORBA begins dying,
SOAP seems like good idea 2000: SOAP Vendor pissing
contests begin in earnest
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

8. A Look Back at SOAP
2003: ‘Simple’ dropped from
SOAP 1.2 acronym.
1998: XML 1.0 becomes
W3C recommendation
1999: SOAP 1.0
1998: CORBA begins dying,
SOAP seems like good idea 2000: SOAP Vendor pissing
contests begin in earnest
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

9. A Look Back at SOAP
2003: ‘Simple’ dropped from
SOAP 1.2 acronym.
1998: XML 1.0 becomes
W3C recommendation 2004: Flickr non-SOAP API.
Serialized PHP payload option.
1999: SOAP 1.0
1998: CORBA begins dying,
SOAP seems like good idea 2000: SOAP Vendor pissing
contests begin in earnest
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

10. A Look Back at SOAP
2003: ‘Simple’ dropped from
SOAP 1.2 acronym.
1998: XML 1.0 becomes
W3C recommendation 2004: Flickr non-SOAP API.
Serialized PHP payload option.
1999: SOAP 1.0
2006: Twitter API born
JSON payload debuts.
1998: CORBA begins dying,
SOAP seems like good idea 2000: SOAP Vendor pissing
contests begin in earnest
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

11. A Look Back at SOAP
2003: ‘Simple’ dropped from
SOAP 1.2 acronym. 200?: SOAP apathy
1998: XML 1.0 becomes
W3C recommendation 2004: Flickr non-SOAP API.
Serialized PHP payload option.
1999: SOAP 1.0
2006: Twitter API born
JSON payload debuts.
1998: CORBA begins dying,
SOAP seems like good idea 2000: SOAP Vendor pissing
contests begin in earnest
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

12. Complexity KILLS
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

13. Complexity KILLS
“SOAP is Awesome! WS-MOAR!!”
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

14. Complexity KILLS
WS-ResourceProperties
“SOAP is Awesome! WS-MOAR!!”
WS-Security WS-Addressing
WS-Trust WS-Transfer
WS-Policy WS-Eventing
WS-Reliability
WS-SecureConversation WS-ReliableMessaging
WS-PolicyAssertions
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

15. How SOAP is seen today
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

16. Today’s coders
WS-*
How SOAP is seen today
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

17. Klaatu Too much complexity
+ Vendor competition
Barada = Toolchain Nightmare
...
Necktie
Definitely an N word
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

18. !=
It’s a trick Get an axe
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

19. Web != Web
Services services
It’s a trick Get an axe
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

20. “Web Services based on SOAP and WSDL are
‘Web’ in name only. In fact, they are a hostile
overlay of the Web based on traditional
enterprise middleware architectural styles that
has fallen far short of expectations over the
past decade.”
—Nick Gall, VP Gartner
@ironick in 2007
It’s a trick Get an axe
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

21. “Web Services based on SOAP and WSDL are
‘Web’ in name only. In fact, they are a hostile
overlay of the Web based on traditional
enterprise middleware architectural styles that
has fallen far short of expectations over the
past decade.”
—Nick Gall, VP Gartner
@ironick in 2007
It’s a trick Get an axe
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

22. ™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

23. a trick
It’s
Get an axe
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

24. Simple
tools
REST JSON
Loose coupling
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

25. Programmable Web
Interlude
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

26. REST
vs.
SOAP:
Simplicity
wins
again
Distribution of API protocols and styles
Based on directory of 3,200 web APIs listed at ProgrammableWeb, May 2011

27. REST
vs.
SOAP:
Simplicity
wins
again
Distribution of API protocols and styles
Based on directory of 3,200 web APIs listed at ProgrammableWeb, May 2011

28. OAuth
Security
is not
only
the
answer
Encryption still missing
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

29. Schema
What’s REST got
still
that SOAP doesn’t?
Important
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

30. Schema
What’s REST got
still
that SOAP doesn’t?
Important
•No central authority beyond HTTP
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

31. Schema
What’s REST got
still
that SOAP doesn’t?
Important
•No central authority beyond HTTP
•No vendor wars
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

32. Schema
What’s REST got
still
that SOAP doesn’t?
Important
•No central authority beyond HTTP
•No vendor wars
•Structured data FTW
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

33. Schema
What’s REST got
still
that SOAP doesn’t?
Important
•No central authority beyond HTTP
•No vendor wars
•Structured data FTW
•Sense of control & order
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

34. Schema
What’s REST got
still
that SOAP doesn’t?
Important
•No central authority beyond HTTP
•No vendor wars
•Structured data FTW
•Sense of control & order
•Open-source vibe
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

35. Community
self-regulates
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

36. Thank
You!
Only YOU can
prevent the
SOAP Zombie Apocalypse
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

37. Bonus Slide!
SOAFacts.com
—Don Box, co-creator of SOAP
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

38. Bonus Slide!
SOAFacts.com
•“You’ll pry the SOA from my cold, clammy fingers ... and
then my SOA will kill you.”
—Don Box, co-creator of SOAP
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

39. Bonus Slide!
SOAFacts.com
•“You’ll pry the SOA from my cold, clammy fingers ... and
then my SOA will kill you.”
•“The audacity of hope is no match for the complexity of
SOA.”
—Don Box, co-creator of SOAP
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

40. Bonus Slide!
SOAFacts.com
•“You’ll pry the SOA from my cold, clammy fingers ... and
then my SOA will kill you.”
•“The audacity of hope is no match for the complexity of
SOA.”
•“Nothing gets between me and my SOA ... except more SOA.”
—Don Box, co-creator of SOAP
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP

41. Discussion
™ & © 1993 Orion Pictures Corporation
Army of Darkness All Rights Reserved
#gluecon @claylo
© 2010 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. #SOAP