Develop Reference

Consume WCF Rest Service with multiple parameters and allow nullable parameter

I'm writing a web service as code below:
[OperationContract]
[WebInvoke(Method = "GET",
ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json,
RequestFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json,
// BodyStyle = WebMessageBodyStyle.Wrapped,
UriTemplate = "/BudgetBalance/{userlogin}/{prnumber=null}")]
Budget BudgetBalance(string userlogin, string prnumber);
As you can see at the code above, the second parameter can be filled or keeped null. By doing this, I can access the service by two different urls.
http://localhost:44880/Service1.svc/BudgetBalance/nurul.widiyanti
http://localhost:44880/Service1.svc/BudgetBalance/nurul.widiyanti/PRM-000114
If the second parameter is filled with some data, the service will return a different value. The problem is when I want to consume this webservice. Here's the code I've tried to call this service.
WebClient proxy = new WebClient();
string serviceUrl = string.Format("http://localhost:1089/Service1.svc/BudgetBalance/Nurul.Widiyanti/PRM-000114");
byte[] data = proxy.DownloadData(serviceUrl);
Stream _mem = new MemoryStream(data);
var reader = new StreamReader(_mem);
var result = reader.ReadToEnd();
var model = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Budget>(result);
This doesn't work and make an error. I realize that this code will work if I change the UriTemplate within OperationContract to something like this:
UriTemplate = "/BudgetBalance/{userlogin}/{prnumber}"
But if I do this, it doesn't suit my requirement. I need to create a webservice which allow one of the parameters remains empty (null). Is this possible accomplish this requirement? If so, please guide me to find the answer.

I think you want something like this ...
...
UriTemplate = "/BudgetBalance/{userlogin}")]
UriTemplate = "/BudgetBalance/{userlogin}/{prnumber}")]
Budget BudgetBalance(string userlogin, string prnumber = null) { .. }

Self Hosted REST Web Service not accepting POST with parameters

Hopefully a simple question, but I have a simple app that is self-hosted (which works fine), and I can hit the requested method using a POST without parameters from the body (which hits the method but defaults the parameter to null), but when I try to pass the named parameter in the BODY of the POST request in raw JSON format, it receives a 400 response, and never hits the method for some reason...
Any advice is appreciated.
[Environment: Visual Studio 2015, C#, self hosted REST application]
[Code Details]
(Web service hosting code for Self Hosted app)
WebServiceHost host = new WebServiceHost(typeof(CalculatorServiceREST), new Uri("http://localhost:8000"));
ServiceEndpoint ep = host.AddServiceEndpoint(typeof(ICalculator), new WebHttpBinding(), "");
ServiceDebugBehavior stp = host.Description.Behaviors.Find<ServiceDebugBehavior>();
stp.HttpHelpPageEnabled = false;
host.Open();
Console.WriteLine("Service is up and running");
Console.WriteLine("Press enter to quit ");
Console.ReadLine();
host.Close();
(The contracts implementation class: CalculatorServiceRest.cs)
public class CalculatorServiceREST : ICalculator
{
[WebInvoke(Method = "POST")] // POST to: /RoundUp (with BODY item of 'number' in the request)
public int RoundUp(double number)
{
return Convert.ToInt32(Math.Round(number));
}
[HttpPost] // POST to: /GetName (with BODY item of 'number' in the request)
public string GetName(string name)
{
return name;
}
}

It appears that I have to add the following attribute values to the POST method so that I can pass JSON data in the BODY for it to pick it up (which is different from how I am use to being able to just put [HttpPost] attribute for MVC and it just knows how to pick it up. Can anyone provide some insight on why it is different?
[WebInvoke(Method = "POST", BodyStyle = WebMessageBodyStyle.WrappedRequest, ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json, RequestFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json)]

WCF custom datatype as OperationContract parameter

I'm very new to WCF and have a question that I hope you can help me with.
Project: I've been asked to create a WCF service that allows a client to be able to upload a word file along with some metadata.
The client doesn't have a sample of the POST call they'll be making so I can't create a class off of that WSDL, but the post would contain data like this:
{
author: 'John Doe',
pages: '32',
size: '14432',
authToken: '322222222233',
encoding: 'binary'
name: 'Document1.doc'
}
I'm thinking of creating an [OperationContract] such as bool UploadFile(CustomDocument inputDocument) instead of bool UploadFile (string author, string encoding ....).
My question: If I use a custom object as an input parameter (CustomDocument) for an [OperationContract] would the client be able to pass all the information as string, int etc in its service call, or would they have to first create an instance of CustomDocument on their end, and then include that object in the post?
Sorry, I'm very new to WCF, my apologies in advance if this question doesn't make any sense; I'll update it based on your feedback.

You have to make sure that CustomDocument is a Serializable object and have a public parameterless constructor.
The easiest way is share the dll that contains the class CustomDocument between the WebService and the Application that will use it.
But personally when I try to send a complex object to a WebServce I prefer to serialize as a byte array and then Deserialize inside the WebService.
Good luck!

You don't need the custom object CustomDocument. Suppose you have this service
[ServiceContract]
public interface IMyTestServce
{
[OperationContract]
[WebInvoke(Method = "POST",
BodyStyle = WebMessageBodyStyle.Wrapped,
UriTemplate = "/Upload?author={author}&pages={pages}&size={size}&name={name}&authToken={authToken}")]
void Upload(string author, int pages, long size, string name,
string authToken,
Stream file);
}
public class MyTestService : IMyTestServce
{
public void Upload(string author, int pages, long size, string name,
string authToken,
Stream file)
{
Console.WriteLine(String.Format("author={0}&pages={1}&size={2}&name={3}&authToken={4}", author, pages, size, name, authToken));
Console.WriteLine(new StreamReader(file).ReadToEnd());
}
}
You can easily call it like
HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
var content = new StreamContent(File.OpenRead(filename);
await client.PostAsync("http://localhost:8088/Upload?author=aa&pages=3&name=bb&authToken=112233", content);
PS: You need to use webHttpBinding (or WebServiceHost if it is not hosted in IIS).

Programmatically determine endpoint for Web Service in C#

I'm building a plugin to a windows service I've made (it's C#, uses plugins to do certain functionality). This new plugin will be using Web Services to make calls to a web-service and get some information.
Unfortunately, the web-service URL is different for my DEV, QC, and PRODUCTION environments. I'd like to make that end-point URL be configurable (the plugin will look into the database and get the URL).
How, exactly, do I set up a web-service caller in my code so that it can use a dynamic endpoint?
I can add a service and point to the existing one in DEV - and that builds up my proxy class - but how can I make it so it's not "hard locked" with the URL - so the plugin works in any environment (based on the URL in the database it pulls out)? I'd like to be able to change that on the fly in the code, so to speak.

Basically you can call this to create your WCF Service client:
MyClient = new MyWCFClient(new BasicHttpBinding("CustomBinding"), new EndpointAddress(GetEndpointFromDatabase()));
Where GetEndpointFromDatabase() returns a string - the endpoint.

I made an end to end sample which runs in LINQPad. This is for a completely self-hosted scenario, and enables exploring various bindings, etc (for both the client and the server). Hope it's not over the top and posted the entire sample in case you find any of the other aspects helpful later on.
void Main()
{
MainService();
}
// Client
void MainClient()
{
ChannelFactory cf = new ChannelFactory(new WebHttpBinding(), "http://localhost:8000");
cf.Endpoint.Behaviors.Add(new WebHttpBehavior());
IService channel = cf.CreateChannel();
Console.WriteLine(channel.GetMessage("Get"));
Console.WriteLine(channel.PostMessage("Post"));
Console.Read();
}
// Service
void MainService()
{
WebServiceHost host = new WebServiceHost(typeof(Service), new Uri("http://localhost:8080"));
ServiceEndpoint ep = host.AddServiceEndpoint(typeof(IService),new WebHttpBinding(), "");
ServiceDebugBehavior stp = host.Description.Behaviors.Find();
stp.HttpHelpPageEnabled = false;
stp.IncludeExceptionDetailInFaults = true;
host.Open();
Console.WriteLine("Service is up and running");
Console.ReadLine();
host.Close();
}
// IService.cs
[ServiceContract]
public interface IService
{
[OperationContract]
[WebInvoke(Method="GET", BodyStyle = WebMessageBodyStyle.Bare, RequestFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json, ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json)]
string GetMessage(string inputMessage);
[OperationContract]
[WebInvoke(Method="POST", BodyStyle = WebMessageBodyStyle.Bare, RequestFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json, ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json)]
string PostMessage(string inputMessage);
[OperationContract]
[WebInvoke(Method="POST", BodyStyle = WebMessageBodyStyle.Bare, RequestFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json, ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json)]
System.IO.Stream PostJson(System.IO.Stream json);
}
// Service.cs
public class Service : IService
{
public string GetMessage(string inputMessage){
Console.WriteLine(inputMessage);
return "Calling Get for you " + inputMessage;
}
public string PostMessage(string inputMessage){
Console.WriteLine(inputMessage);
return "Calling Post for you " + inputMessage;
}
public System.IO.Stream PostJson (System.IO.Stream json) {
Console.WriteLine(new System.IO.StreamReader(json).ReadToEnd());
return json;
}
}

Can't you just put the URI inside the .config file? You can just change the URI when it's debug or release by having different URI inside .debug.config and .release.config.

Just set the url point
TheWebservice.Url = TheUrlFromTheDatabase;

WCF UriTemplate with large query strings

I'm working with a rather large query string(~30+ parameters) and am trying to pass them to a WCF service I've setup.
I've run into a few issues specifically with the UriTemplate field. This service is setup to access a third party Api, so the query string may or may not contain all parameters. I'm curious if the best approach is to build a query string and pass that to the WCF service or to pass each parameter(and in some cases String.Empty) individually.
I've currently tried to dynamically build up a query string, however have hit a wall with either a 403 error when I try to pass the entire string( "?prm1=val&prm2=val" ) into the uritemplate of "ApiTool.jsp{query}", or I hit an invalid uritemplate response due to the fact I don't have name/value pairs listed.

I am pretty sure you'll need to list the parameters individually. Otherwise, UriTemplate will end up escaping things for you:
var ut = new UriTemplate("Api.jsp{query}");
var u = ut.BindByName(new Uri("http://localhost"), new Dictionary<string, string>() { { "query", "?param1=a&param2=b" } });
Console.WriteLine(u); // http://localhost/Api.jsp%3Fparam1=a&param2=b

You can 'unescape' querystring with IClientMessageInspector.
public class UriInspector: IClientMessageInspector
{
public object BeforeSendRequest(ref Message request, IClientChannel channel)
{
// change/replace request.Headers.To Uri object;
return null;
}
}
See MSDN how to add this to your Endpoint object.