binary protocols v. text protocols

Question

does anyone have a good definition for what a binary protocol is? and what is a text protocol actually? how do these compare to each other in terms of bits sent on the wire?

Answer 1

How can we send an image file in SOAP: Click here

This shows that binary data is attached as such [ATTACHMENT] and its reference is saved in SOAP message.

So, The protocol is text based and data[Image] is binary attachment whose encoding is not relevant

Thus, SOAP is text protocol due to the way we specify Soap headers and not actual data encoded in it.