Response object not usable in WCF? - wcf

I'm creating a silverlight-based email system, I use WCF to read emails, then I pass my data to SL app, I've used following codes in another test web project to save a byte array into a file on client system (email attachments), it works fine, but when I want to use them in my WCF (myservice.svc.cs), I get this error: "The name 'Response' does not exist in the current context", what is going wrong here? is it possible to use Response object in a service?
Response.AppendHeader("Content-Disposition", String.Format("attachment; filename={0}", messages[i].Attachments[j].FileName));
Response.BinaryWrite(messages[i].Attachments[j].FileData);
how can I save my attachments?

No, you typically would not use an HttpResponse object in WCF (though I am not 100% sure if you could use it in REST services or not). If you want to send a file to the client, you'll need to implement a service operation that returns a byte array or a file stream. This post might help you with that.

Related

Web service not returning data when called from code

Got stuck on an issue.
I'm consuming an external web service and I'm trying to receive data from a web method.
This web method returns an array of a particular object.
When I call the method from my code (C#, Service Reference) the response is an empty array, but when i call it from SOAP UI with exactly the same parameters I get the array with data.
What could be the problem? any Idea?
Tks
Ceck the header information, the content type, the parameters. Make sure everything is exactly the same.
Soap UI is obviously setting more things in the background you just need to make sure you replicate it exactly.
Use something like Fiddler and inspect each call, this way you will notice the differences very quickly and you should be able to craft your call correctly.

Using WCF Message

I am still confused when it is appropriate to use the Message type in WCF like below
[ServiceContract]
public interface IMyService
{
[OperationContract]
Message GetData();
[OperationContract]
void PutData(Message m);
}
Why would you want to use it?
Can you use it for streaming?
Thanks
MSDN lists the follow reasons for using the message class directly:
When you need an alternative way of creating outgoing message contents (for example, creating a message directly from a file on disk) instead of serializing .NET Framework objects.
When you need an alternative way of using incoming message contents (for example, when you want to apply an XSLT transformation to the raw XML contents) instead of deserializing into .NET Framework objects.
When you need to deal with messages in a general way regardless of message contents (for example, when routing or forwarding messages when building a router, load-balancer, or a publish-subscribe system).
See Using the Message Class for more detailed information.
Edit to address the streaming question
I didn't find a definitive answer in my quick scan via google, but the article above states "All communication between clients and services ultimately results in Message instances being sent and received" - so I would assume it could be used directly in streaming.
While the reasons listed by Tim are valid, we use messages directly in our services to create one uber routing service.
we have one service that can take any method call you throw at it, Clients are generated by wsdls supplied from multiple sources.
This service would take the message, examine its content and route it accordingly.
So in my opinion if you want to get closer to the wire, or when you dont know the type of incoming messages, you can use the message in the signature directly.
Streaming is a separate concept than message signature, streaming is supported by wcf under very specific bindings and security mechanism and the method signature has to be very specific (i.e it should return/accept stream). Also in streaming the actual stream of data travels outside the scope of soap message.

MsmqIntegrationBinding Serialization with Unknown Message Body Types

I'm looking to use the MsmqIntegrationBinding to integrate with a legacy queue which has a serialized object as the message body. Has anyone come up with a way to obtain the "metadata" of the message body and create a service side class to use within the service?
For example, if I put in a serialized Product object from System A and my service needs to consume it, how do I provide MsmqMessage the type if I do not have the Product class on my side? I was thinking of reading off a message in a separate program, deserializing, and then emitting via the code dom. Ideas?
I wholeheartedly recommend against attempting to emit the deserialized type at runtime in the message destination. Either work with the XML at the destination to obtain the data you desire, or build data contracts that both the source and destination can adhere to.
Hmm... in WCF, you can define service methods which take (and optionally return) an untyped Message type. This seems to fit your bill quite nicely.
Other than with strongly typed messages, you'll have to do all the putting together of the message on the client and the taking apart on the server by means of reading the raw XML - but that seems to be what you're looking for, right?
Find more information and samples here:
WCF - Handling Generic Messages
How to pass a generic object through WCF
Untyped messages on WCF
Untyped messages have some restrictions, e.g. you can only read them once on the server, but you should be able to manage your scenario with this, I think.
Marc

Type 'System.Web.HttpRequest' cannot be serialized

I am trying to design an Picture Upload feature into a web site.
I am using ASP.NET 3.5, C#, and WCF.
I have been asked to accomplish the following:
1) Make the Uploader a Web Service
2) Return progress updates to the user as files are uploaded.
3) Log other relevant user-selected options in the database.
So, I have started off by creating a WCF web client with the
below service contract:
IService.UploadPictures(HttpRequest request);
private UploadServiceClient upload;
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
upload = new UploadServiceClient();
upload.UploadPictures(Request.Files);
}
When I compile, I get the below error:
Type 'System.Web.HttpRequest' cannot
be serialized. Consider marking it
with the DataContractAttribute, and
marking all of its members you want
serialized with the
DataMemberAttribute attribute.
So, I went back into my service contract and
changed [OperationContract] to [DataContract]
but the change produced the same error.
Can somebody kindly tell me what I am doing wrong
and provide examples as to how to best move forward?
Thanks for your time.
You cannot use something like a HttpRequest as a WCF parameter. The error messages says it all - the HttpRequest is not serializable, and in order to work with WCF, types have to be serializable.
Also, you need to remember: you're not just passing an object instance to a method here - what you're really doing is having the WCF runtime serialize your request (the method name to call plus all the parameters passed in) into a message (think: e-mail or xml file), sending it to the server, deserialising there and building up a new copy of the given datatype (as defined in your DataContract), and doing something with it.
Your WCF service could well be self-hosted, e.g. running in a NT Service or console app - no HttpRequest available in those circumstances!
You need to definitely rearchitect your solution - you need to either check into WCF streaming to upload files to WCF (google for it - you'll find plenty of hits) or you'll need to find another way to pass the relevant info (e.g. list of filenames) to the WCF service without use of a HttpRequest object.
Marc
You are submitting a request as a parameter to a request. This is not what you want to do. I'm assuming that "Request.Files" is an array of files. This is what you want to upload. So something like:
IService.UploadPictures(List<SomeFileType> request);

View underlying SOAP message using vb.net

I have a VB.NET web service that calls a third party web service. How can I view the SOAP message generated by .NET before it is sent to the third party web service and how can I see the SOAP response before it is serialized by .NET.
When creating a standalone EXE, I see the Reference.vb file that is automatically generated, but don't see a similar file when my project is a web service. I have found lots of C# code to do this, but none in VB.NET.
Edit - Fiddler and TCP loggers are great, but will not work for my purposes. I need to be able to access the raw SOAP messages from within the application so I can log them or modify them. I need to do more than just see the messages going back and forth.
You can use fiddler or a tcp sniffer to filter and identify all outgoing and incoming traffic on your host.
This is if you want to see the xml request and response.
How about using an extension to allow you to examine the SOAP message?
Accessing Raw SOAP Messages in ASP.NET Web Services
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc188761.aspx
I was trying to do the same thing and this seems to work for me:
Dim message As String = OperationContext.Current.RequestContext.RequestMessage.ToString()
I didn't think it would be that easy since most of the time ToString() returns the name of the class, but I tried it out and low and behold.
I know you asked this back in January so if since then you've figured out a better way let me know.
Please note that if you're catching the exception in a class that implements IErrorHandler then you have to perform this operation from within the ProvideFault() method instead of the HandleError() method because the context is closed before it gets to call the HandleError() method.
Hope this helps.