As enterprise systems continue to evolve, the need to bridge legacy SOAP-based systems with modern cloud applications has never been more critical. Workato’s API Platform provides a powerful solution for exposing SOAP APIs, enabling organizations to modernize their integration architecture while maintaining compatibility with existing systems.

Understanding SOAP API Exposure in Workato

Workato’s unified API platform transforms how organizations handle SOAP integrations by providing a cloud-native approach to API management. The platform allows you to create API endpoints that can process SOAP requests and deliver structured responses, effectively acting as a bridge between your legacy systems and modern applications.

Key Capabilities

• Raw Content Processing: Workato’s API platform supports raw content handling, which is essential for SOAP operations. This feature allows clients to send XML-based SOAP requests and receive custom responses from your exposed API recipes.
• Multi-Protocol Support: While focusing on SOAP, Workato simultaneously supports REST, OData, and OpenAPI standards, providing flexibility for diverse integration scenarios.
• Enterprise Security: The platform extends Workato’s robust security features to external API calls, including OAuth2 and JWT token support for secure SOAP endpoint access.

Steps to expose a SOAP API in Workato

Step 1: Create an API Recipe

Navigate to the project folder and then click on create and then create a recipe with the trigger point as API endpoint.

Step-2 Create Response for API request with Status code

Step-3 Implement recipe logic and return to the API call

a. We have chosen SQL to return all employee details for every API call.

b. Choose API platform by workato to return response.

c. Choose action respond to API request.

Step-4 Return the response body as XML document

Step 5: Create an API Collection

Navigate to Platform > API platform > API collections in your Workato workspace. API collections serve as containers for organizing related endpoints. Create a new collection specifically for your SOAP APIs or add endpoints to existing collections based on your organizational structure.

Step-7 Choose the recipe that you have built

Step-6 Activate the recipe and the Endpoint

To test the Api endpoint which we have configured, we first need to activate the recipe and then we have to active the endpoint, and from the next tab “Test Request” you can send a request to the API endpoint which you have exposed directly from here without any authentication as you are consuming API directly in Workato.

Result:

Real-World Implementation Scenarios

Legacy System Integration

Many organizations use SOAP API exposure to modernize access to on-premises systems. For example, you might expose a SOAP API that processes requests from external partners while internally routing them to private servers that aren’t directly accessible from the internet.

Enterprise Application Connectivity

SOAP endpoints in Workato commonly facilitate integration between enterprise applications like:

• NetSuite: Although NetSuite is transitioning to REST APIs by 2026, existing SOAP integrations remain supported
• Workday: Leveraging SOAP APIs for HR and workforce management data exchange
• UKG Pro: Using SOAP connectors for payroll and HR system integration

Ready to streamline your legacy-to-cloud integrations? TGH’s Workato specialists can help you design secure SOAP API exposure patterns, build scalable API recipes, and unify data flows across critical HR, finance, and ERP systems.
Reach out to TGH for expert-led integration guidance.