SOAPi

SOAPi is a software framework and protocol designed to bridge SOAP-based web services with modern API ecosystems. It provides a runtime engine, a suite of adapters, and tooling to translate between SOAP envelopes and JSON-based APIs, enabling hybrid architectures where legacy systems coexist with RESTful or GraphQL services.

The project originated as a community-driven initiative in the mid-2010s to address interoperability gaps between traditional XML‑SOAP services and contemporary API stacks. After several public releases and iterative improvements, SOAPi established a modular architecture and formal documentation that guided both developers and enterprises exploring service modernization. The project has since evolved through multiple minor releases, focusing on stability, performance, and extensibility.

Architecture and core components of SOAPi include a core engine, bridging adapters, mappers for data transformation, and a security layer. The core engine handles message routing and protocol negotiation, while adapters provide SOAP-to-REST and SOAP-to-GraphQL translation capabilities. Mappers define data schemas and mapping rules, enabling seamless conversion between XML and JSON representations. The security module implements WS-Security-compatible features and supports OAuth2 and API keys for access control.

Common use cases involve modernizing legacy enterprise services, integrating disparate data sources in service-oriented architectures, and enabling IoT gateways to communicate with backend SOAP services. SOAPi is generally distributed under an open-source license, with community governance and periodic feature reviews to maintain alignment with evolving web standards.

See also: Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), Web services, WSDL, REST, API gateway.