Calling a RESTful WCF Service

Dear Experts,

I am trying to invoke a RESTful WCF service programmatically.

This is the OperationContract method.

[WebInvoke(Method = "POST", UriTemplate = "submitPaymentToBankURI")]
[OperationContract]
Stream submitPaymentToBank(Stream info);

This is the client code:

string baseAddress = "http://localhost:1287/CreditCardWebServiceRESTSite/CreditCardServiceREST.svc";

HttpWebRequest req = (HttpWebRequest)HttpWebRequest.Create(baseAddress + "/submitPaymentToBankURI");
req.Method = "POST";
req.ContentType = "text/plain";

Stream reqStream = req.GetRequestStream();
string inputData = "MyData";
System.Text.UTF8Encoding encoding = new System.Text.UTF8Encoding();
byte[] DataToSend = encoding.GetBytes(inputData);
reqStream.Write(DataToSend, 0, DataToSend.Length);
reqStream.Close();
HttpWebResponse resp = (HttpWebResponse)req.GetResponse();
Console.WriteLine("Client: Receive Response HTTP/{0} {1} {2}", resp.ProtocolVersion, (int)resp.StatusCode, resp.StatusDescription);

StreamReader loResponseStream = new StreamReader(resp.GetResponseStream(), encoding);
string lcHtml = loResponseStream.ReadToEnd();
Console.WriteLine(lcHtml);
Console.ReadLine();

I am using WebHttpBinding.

I am getting an exception on this line:
HttpWebResponse resp = (HttpWebResponse)req.GetResponse();

Exception Details:
System.Net.WebException was unhandled
Message="The remote server returned an error: (400) Bad Request."
Source="System"
StackTrace:
at System.Net.HttpWebRequest.GetResponse()
at TestCreditCardWebServiceREST.Program.Main(String[] args) in C:\MyProject\TestCreditCardWebServiceREST\Program.cs:line 61
at System.AppDomain._nExecuteAssembly(Assembly assembly, String[] args)
at System.AppDomain.ExecuteAssembly(String assemblyFile, Evidence assemblySecurity, String[] args)
at Microsoft.VisualStudio.HostingProcess.HostProc.RunUsersAssembly()
at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart_Context(Object state)
at System.Threading.ExecutionContext.Run(ExecutionContext executionContext, ContextCallback callback, Object state)
at System.Threading.ThreadHelper.ThreadStart()
InnerException:

Any clues on how to fix this?

Thanks in advance for your help.

shekhar_shashi

Asked: 2011-03-15

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3 Solutions

LVL 18

DarrenDCommented: 2011-03-16

Hi,

Have you seen this link?

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/pedram/archive/2008/04/21/how-to-consume-rest-services-with-wcf.aspx

Cheers,

Darren

LVL 3

shekhar_shashiAuthor Commented: 2011-03-16

Hi Darren,

Yes, I have tried this link before. I can get the my code (and also the code in the link) to work with HTTP Get but not with Post.

Thanks

LVL 18

DarrenDCommented: 2011-03-17

Hi,

How about this?

[OperationContract]
[WebInvoke
(Method = "POST",
RequestFormat = WebMessageFormat.Xml,
UriTemplate = "/SetGasPrice/For/ZipCode/{zipCode}/Price/{price}"
)]
void SetPriceDataForZipCode(string zipCode, string price);
}

Got this from here:
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/385451/wcf-restful-post-question

Cheers,

Darren

LVL 3

shekhar_shashiAuthor Commented: 2011-03-21

Hi Darren,

I managed to fix the issue by doing the following:

1. Removed old code and started from scratch.
2. Created WCF Library and added a new service and the same method.
The method signature is:

[WebInvoke(Method = "POST", UriTemplate = "submitPayment", BodyStyle = WebMessageBodyStyle.Wrapped, RequestFormat = WebMessageFormat.Xml, ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Xml)]
[OperationContract]
Stream submitPaymentToBank(Stream info);

3. Made sure I exposed an endpoint with WebHttpBinding binding. Also I added an endpoint behavior that used webHttp behavior.

Config file is:

<system.serviceModel>
<services>
<service behaviorConfiguration="CreditCardWebServiceREST.CreditCardWebServiceRESTBehavior"
name="CreditCardWebServiceREST.CreditCardWebServiceREST">
<clear />
<endpoint behaviorConfiguration="WebBehavior" binding="webHttpBinding"
bindingConfiguration="" contract="CreditCardWebServiceREST.ICreditCardWebServiceREST"
listenUriMode="Explicit" />
<endpoint address="mex" binding="mexHttpBinding" contract="IMetadataExchange"
listenUriMode="Explicit" />
<host>
<baseAddresses>
<add baseAddress="http://localhost:2524/CreditCardWebServiceREST/" />
</baseAddresses>
</host>
</service>
</services>
<behaviors>
<endpointBehaviors>
<behavior name="WebBehavior">
<webHttp />
</behavior>
</endpointBehaviors>
<serviceBehaviors>
<behavior name="CreditCardWebServiceREST.CreditCardWebServiceRESTBehavior">
<serviceMetadata httpGetEnabled="true" />
<serviceDebug includeExceptionDetailInFaults="false" />
</behavior>
</serviceBehaviors>
</behaviors>
</system.serviceModel>

4. I added a new WCF website that uses the WCF library. This is a pre-compiled site that has a service file with this code.

<%@ ServiceHost Service="CatalogWebServiceREST.CatalogWebServiceREST"
Factory="System.ServiceModel.Activation.WebServiceHostFactory"%>

Also - both projects have a reference to System.ServiceModel.Web.

5. This is my client code.

string baseAddress = "http://localhost:xxxx/CreditCardService.svc";

HttpWebRequest req = (HttpWebRequest)HttpWebRequest.Create(baseAddress + "/submitPayment/");
req.Method = "POST";
req.ContentType = "text/plain";

Stream reqStream = req.GetRequestStream();
string inputData = "MyData";
System.Text.UTF8Encoding encoding = new System.Text.UTF8Encoding();
byte[] DataToSend = encoding.GetBytes(inputData);
reqStream.Write(DataToSend, 0, DataToSend.Length);
reqStream.Close();
HttpWebResponse resp = (HttpWebResponse)req.GetResponse();
Console.WriteLine("Client: Receive Response HTTP/{0} {1} {2}", resp.ProtocolVersion, (int)resp.StatusCode, resp.StatusDescription);

StreamReader loResponseStream = new StreamReader(resp.GetResponseStream(), encoding);
string lcHtml = loResponseStream.ReadToEnd();
Console.WriteLine(lcHtml);
Console.ReadLine();

This code is stolen from:
http://www.west-wind.com/presentations/dotnetwebrequest/dotnetwebrequest.htm

Everything works like a charm!!!