Connect to SOAP APIs

You can connect Retool to a wide range of APIs using our native integrations. You can also connect to any SOAP API and make it available as a resource. Once complete, you can write queries to interact with the API.

Requirements

All users for Retool organizations on Free or Team plans have global Edit permissions and can add, edit, and remove resources. If your organization manages user permissions for resources, you must be a member of a group with Edit all permissions.

To create your SOAP API resource, you need:

• the base URL for the API.

If your SOAP API is behind a firewall, you must also allow access from Retool's IP addresses. Add these IP addresses to your firewall's allowlist before you create the resource.

SOAP APIs require some additional formatting, which is outlined below.

• Use the SOAP endpoint as the URL of the request. If you use WSDL, provide the path to the WSDL inside the URL.
• SOAP endpoints must be sent as POST requests.
• Add 'Content-Type' = 'text/xml' to the header. If you use a SOAP 1.1 service, you also need to include the SOAPAction header and appropriate value.
• Use the Raw body type to define the SOAP request.
• See your API specification for required headers. The name of the SOAP method is usually provided in the SOAP body but may need to be provided in the header instead.

If you see authentication errors, verify your authentication details are correct. See our API authentication documentation for more information.

1. Create a new resource

Sign in to your Retool organization and navigate to the Resources tab. Click Create new, then select Resource.

Retool can connect to almost any API or database, and has built-in integrations for popular data sources. Select the REST API integration.

2. Configure the resource

Provide the necessary details to configure the resource so Retool can connect to your SOAP API. Not all settings are required.

General

These settings configure the name and location of the resource within Retool.

Name

The name to use for the resource (e.g., SOAP API).

Folder

The folder in which to save the resource.

Description

A brief description of the resource (e.g., Customer data).

Credentials

These settings configure how Retool connects to your SOAP API.

Base URL

The base URL for the SOAP API. This must be an absolute URL.

URL parameters

Key-value pairs to include as URL parameters with SOAP API requests.

Headers

Key-value pairs to include as headers with SOAP API requests. You must include the following key-value pair when setting up a SOAP API resource:

If you use a SOAP 1.1 service, include SOAPAction and an appropriate value.

Body

Key-value pairs to include in the body of SOAP API requests.

Cookies

Cookies to include with SOAP API requests.

Authentication

The method of authentication to use with SOAP API requests.

Forward all cookies

Whether to forward all cookies. This is useful if you have dynamic cookie names.

3. Save the resource

Click Create resource to complete the setup. You can then click either Create an app to immediately start building a Retool app or Back to resources to return to the list of resources.

Wrap up

Your SOAP API resource is now ready to use. You write queries to make API requests by specifying the request method and endpoint, additional parameters to include, and the request body.

To verify you can successfully interact with your SOAP API, write a test query to retrieve some data.