SOAP API

Salesforce SOAP API is a web service interface based on the SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) standard that uses XML-formatted request and response messages defined by WSDL (Web Services Description Language) files. Salesforce provides three main WSDLs: the Enterprise WSDL (strongly-typed, specific to the org's schema), the Partner WSDL (loosely-typed, generic across orgs), and the Metadata WSDL (for metadata operations such as deployments and retrievals). The Tooling WSDL is also available for developer tool integrations. SOAP API supports all standard CRUD operations (create, retrieve, update, upsert, delete, undelete), queries via SOQL and SOSL, metadata describe calls, and utility operations like merge, convertLead, and getUpdated. It is commonly used in enterprise integrations, particularly with Java and .NET platforms.

Salesforce SOAP API is a web service interface based on the SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) standard that uses XML-formatted request and response messages defined by WSDL (Web Services Description Language) files. Salesforce provides three main WSDLs: the Enterprise WSDL (strongly-typed, specific to the org's schema), the Partner WSDL (loosely-typed, generic across orgs), and the Metadata WSDL (for metadata operations such as deployments and retrievals). The Tooling WSDL is also available for developer tool integrations.

SOAP API supports all standard CRUD operations (create, retrieve, update, upsert, delete, undelete), queries via SOQL and SOSL, metadata describe calls, and utility operations like merge, convertLead, and getUpdated. It is commonly used in enterprise integrations, particularly with Java and .NET platforms. While REST API is preferred for new modern integrations, SOAP API remains widely used in established enterprise environments where Java/.NET tooling provides strong SOAP support.