PromoStandards is planning to move from SOAP/XML to REST/JSON
The promotional products industry is taking a significant step forward. At the 2nd PromoStandards Tech Summit (February 4-7, 2024), Eric Shonebarger, former President at Hit Promotional Products and Standards Committee Chair, announced that PromoStandards will begin creating new standards using OpenAPI, transitioning away from SOAP/XML toward REST/JSON.
Why This Matters
For years, SOAP/XML has been the backbone of PromoStandards integrations. While reliable, this approach comes with drawbacks:
- Verbose payloads that consume more bandwidth
- Complex parsing requirements for developers
- Steeper learning curve for new integrators
The move to JSON addresses these pain points while maintaining compatibility. The committee’s approach prioritizes JSON adoption over strict REST compliance, minimizing the migration effort for suppliers, distributors, and service providers.
Real-World Impact: XML vs JSON Payload Comparison
To quantify the benefits, we ran experiments using PSRESTful.com, which already provides this XML-to-JSON translation. We tested with a representative product: the Alphabroder 3501 (Bella + Canvas Unisex Jersey Long-Sleeve T-Shirt) featuring 46 colors and 8 sizes.
Service | Method | Size XML | Size JSON | % Reduction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Inventory | getInventoryLevels | 5.1K | 2.4K | 52.9% |
| Product Pricing and Configuration | getPPC | 992K | 607K | 38.8% |
| Product Data | getProductSellable | 16M | 8.7M | 45.6% |
| Media Content | getMediaContent | 1.2M | 770K | 35.8% |
The results speak for themselves: JSON payloads are 35-53% smaller than their XML counterparts. For high-volume integrations, this translates to meaningful bandwidth savings and faster response times.
You Don’t Have to Wait
While the official standards are being developed, you can start benefiting from JSON today. PSRESTful already provides:
- Automatic translation from SOAP/XML to REST/JSON for all PromoStandards services
- Intelligent caching that dramatically improves API response times (learn more)
- Data Explorer for visualizing and understanding API responses (learn more)
Get Started
Ready to modernize your PromoStandards integration? Visit PSRESTful.com to explore the API and see the difference for yourself. We’d love to hear your feedback and answer any questions.
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