Yahoo Developer Network is now making life very easy for PHP programmers by providing an option for REST calls to return serialized PHP, instead of XML. Not that XML is difficult to deal with, particularly with PHP 5, but now all you have to do is call unserialize() to get everything into a convenient PHP array. This and more at the new PHP Developer Center.
web services: February 2006 Archives
Great little summary of the old SOAP vs. REST question, from Don Box. Decide which to support based on your target audience. When I develop in PHP, I prefer REST, but when I'm in Microsoft's Visual C# environment, SOAP is easier. Or if you can, do what Amazon does, and support both!
Some useful thoughts on web data vs. web page design and web APIs from Jeremy Zawodny, following up on a presentation from Tom Coates.
I like the idea that as part of your design you should think about how the URLs should look -- they should be easily read and constructed. The associated web services API should parallel this.
