SuiteTalk Web Services (SOAP & REST) Overview

🚀 What is SuiteTalk?

SuiteTalk is NetSuite’s official API framework that allows external applications to interact with NetSuite records. It supports:

• REST Web Services (recommended for new integrations)
• SOAP Web Services (legacy support, still available but not advised for new projects)

With SuiteTalk, you can:

• Create, read, update, and delete records (customers, sales orders, invoices, etc.)
• Run saved searches
• Automate data exchange with external platforms

🔑 REST vs SOAP in NetSuite

👉 According to NetSuite documentation:

• REST Web Services should be used for all new integrations.
• SOAP remains available for backward compatibility, but its use is discouraged.

⚙️ Authentication Methods

1. Token-Based Authentication (TBA) – Most common and secure
2. OAuth 2.0 – Modern standard, required for some integrations
3. User/Password – Deprecated and not recommended

🧑‍💻 Example: REST Web Services Request

Retrieve a customer record:

Request (GET):

GET https://<account_id>.suitetalk.api.netsuite.com/services/rest/record/v1/customer/456
Authorization: NLAuth nlauth_account=1234567, nlauth_consumer_key=XXXX, nlauth_token=YYYY

Response (JSON):

{
  "id": "456",
  "companyName": "ABC Corp",
  "email": "info@abccorp.com",
  "phone": "123-456-7890"
}

🧑‍💻 Example: SOAP Web Services Request (Legacy)

A SOAP request to get a customer (only if maintaining old systems):

<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/" xmlns:platformCore="urn:core_2022_1.platform.webservices.netsuite.com">
   <soapenv:Header>
      <platformCore:passport>
         <platformCore:account>1234567</platformCore:account>
         <platformCore:email>user@example.com</platformCore:email>
         <platformCore:password>********</platformCore:password>
         <platformCore:role internalId="3"/>
      </platformCore:passport>
   </soapenv:Header>
   <soapenv:Body>
      <platformCore:get>
         <platformCore:baseRef xsi:type="platformCore:RecordRef" internalId="456" type="customer"/>
      </platformCore:get>
   </soapenv:Body>
</soapenv:Envelope>

⚠️ Note: Use SOAP only when supporting legacy systems. For new builds, always use REST.

📌 Summary

• SuiteTalk is NetSuite’s API framework.
• REST Web Services = Recommended for new integrations (fast, simple, JSON-based).
• SOAP Web Services = Still supported but legacy; avoid for new projects.
• Authentication is usually via Token-Based Auth or OAuth 2.0.

This page gave you an overview of SuiteTalk. In the next tutorial, we’ll learn about RESTlets — custom APIs you can build inside NetSuite for advanced logic.