View underlying SOAP message using vb.net - 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.

Related

WCF - quick response with status then continue doing longer process

I spent few days search on this case. I checked out all wcf asynchronous implementaions.
I wasn't able to find what I was looking for.
Below is scenario.
WCF is running to accept xml
WCF needs to response to user for success receiving xml and release
the request immediately
WCF then needs to do processing to save xml to database and parsing xml to
convert something else.
I don't want to use separate service to process above. I want to use one service to handle all 3 cases above.
I checked out asynchronous way of coding in WCF, but this doesn't release the request right away. What is the best practice for this? Is there any sample code I can use?
Thank you in advance.
I think you would be better suited to using a different technology. Maybe look at Windows Workflow Foundation.
You can host WCF Workflow Services the same way as you host a standard WCF service, the main difference is that you can create specific workflows that can continue after acknowledging receipt of the original message.
You do this by persisting the message and returning to the user. WF allows you to create actions that continue after sending response back to the caller.
Visual studio provides you with a design surface that allows you to drag and drop components to create custom workflows. Additionally you can also make calls to other services if required.
With .net 4.5 you can now use C#, in previous versions of WF you had to use VB.net.
You can read about it on the MSDN site here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/jj684582.aspx
Hope this helps

How do I create and Axis2 client

I've been given a WDSL file and have to create a web service client using axis2. I've been able to generate the CallbackHandler and Stub using WSDL2java. I've tried following this tutorial to create the Client http://briansjavablog.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/axis2-web-service-client-tutorial.html
I'm not sure if I implemented the client properly. It runs, but I'm not sure how you view any output results. I've never dealt with web services before. The Stub file that was generated contains so much code, how am I supposed to know what I should be calling? All tutorials I've found give example Clients, but I want to know what I need to look at to create my own.
If anyone has any advice or links to creating clients that are easy to understand, it would be appreciated.
I think that this probably went un-answered for a while due to the fact that the question is not clear and you probably need an introduction to Web Services and SOAP in general. If you are given the WSDL (or can pull it from a URL out there somewhere) then you are using the Web Service as a client - you have (from the post) already created the stub for client use. You simply need to use it. You are sending a request to the server (Web Service) and sending it the data that it requires (as the SOAP parameters that are laid out in the Web Service schema). Based on this SOAP request you will get a response. Your stubs that are created for the client act as the invocation and response points for your client.
So your question as to how do you test it: you decide what to do with the response as this is what you are coding into the client.
And about creating your own Web Service - you would need to start with a schema (often times you write your objects/data and the functions that you want them to perform and tools (like Axis2) will generate the server code (for Web Services and SOAP transport) on top of this.
So in your question, I think that you need to a) check out some Web Services books/online tutorials to figure out what it is, b) code your client to display the results and stuff - and just make sure that you are actually sending and getting responses from the Web Service, and c) also see what it would take to create your own Web Service (for whatever purpose you are planning the service to be established for, before creating your own.
Effectively I think that you just need to get your feet wet with Web Services in the first place. And the tutorial that you pointed out ( http://briansjavablog.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/axis2-web-service-client-tutorial.html) is excellent for anyone looking to get a web services client started - thanks for posting that.

Accessing .NET WCF services from Android

I have a .NET WCF service (not a web service) with many methods, some accepting and returning complex data types. I use these services from my Windows Phone 7 apps. It all works great and it's easy.
Now I'm evaluating the feasibility of porting some of my apps to Android, but I can't figure out how to invoke my WCF services from an Android client.
I have a working example I found in Invoke webservices from Android.
But this looks to be accessing a "Web Service", not a WCF Service.
My service is at http://www.deanblakely.com/Service2.svc, and it contains a simple method named "SimpleTest" that just returns the string "Alive".
Using the code in the linked article, I put http://www.deanblakely.com/Service2.svc in SOAP_ADDRESS and SimpleTest in OPERATION_NAME. But I have no idea what to put in SOAP_ACTION and WSDL_TARGET_NAMESPACE. I don't even know if this approach is valid.
In .NET, Visual Studio builds us a "Service Reference" and everything just works.
I also don't understand the following two lines of code...
httpTransport.call(SOAP_ACTION, envelope);
Object response = envelope.getResponse();
With WCF services, the call is async so we make the call to SimpleTestAsync and leave a callback for the async return. These two lines of code appear to be synchronous, no?
When communicating with WCF services from a non-Windows client, you are basically treating it as an XML Web Service. If you configure your WCF service to use a basicHttp binding, it will act just like any other web service, as far as Java is concerned.
Normally, to call a WCF service from Java, you use wsimport to create a custom set of proxy and data classes, similar to the way a service reference works. Android doesn't have all the libraries needed for those classes, but I did find this URL:
http://code.google.com/p/androidclientgenerator-wsimport/
That is a proxy class generator specifically for Android. Instead of using the code on that web page, you may want to download this proxy generator; you simply have to pass it the URL to your service's WSDL page and it will create typed Java classes for everything. If you have complex types being passed back and forth, this is probably a much better option.
However, if you want to continue with the sample code, you'll need to fill in those variables you've identified. The variables are just the typical parameters for a SOAP envelope. These are defined in the WSDL for your service, and are primarily based on the namespace that you have defined for your service. (They are largely independent of the actual URL that your service lives at, with one exception). You specify the namespace in the WCF service contract:
[ServiceContract(Namespace = "http://namespaces.deanblakely.com/wcf")]
Note that the namespace URL doesn't need to point to a real resource, though frequently they do. It doesn't even need to be a URL (I often use urns); it just needs to be a unique string of characters. For now lets assume you assigned the above namespace to your service.
The WSDL_TARGET_NAMESPACE is just the namespace, exactly as above. The OPERATION_NAME is the name of the method you want to call, for example SimpleTest. The SOAP_ACTION is the combination of namespace an operation; in your case that would be http://namespaces.deanblakely.com/wcf/SimpleTest. In your WSDL you would see this described in an operation tag:
<wsdl:operation name="SimpleTest">
<soap:operation soapAction="http://namespaces.deanblakely.com/wcf/SimpleTest" style="document"/>
The SOAP_ADDRESS is the only one that actually points to your service file, e.g. http://www.deanblakely.com/Service2.svc.
Hopefully that will get you started calling in to your web service; if not feel free to stop back and get more assistance.
EDIT: Missed the part about async calls.
Yes, the method described on that web page is synchronous. WCF service methods are synchronous by default, with the option to include asynchronous calls when generating a service reference in Visual Studio. wsimport generates async-ready proxies, so using the Android client generate may also help you out in this area.

WCF using Enterprise Library Validation Application Block - how to get hold of invalid messages?

I've got some WCF services (hosted in IIS 6) which use the Enterprise Library (4.0) Validation Application Block. If a client submits a message which fails validation (i.e. gets thrown back in a ValidationFault exception), I'd quite like to be able to log the message XML somewhere (using code, no IIS logs). All the validation happens before the service implementation code kicks in.
I'm sure it's possible to set up some class to get run before the service implementation (presumably this is how the Validation Application Block works), but I can't remember how, or work out exactly what to search for.
Is it possible to create a class and associated configuration that will give me access to either the whole SOAP request message, or at least the message body?
Take a look at using the Policy Injection Application Block...
I'm currently developing an application in which I intercept (using PIAB) all requests incoming to the server and based on the type of request I apply different validation behavior using the VAB.
Here's an article about integrating PIAB with WCF:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc136759.aspx
You can create different inteception mechanisms such as attributes applied to exposed operations.
You could log the whole WCF Message:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms730064.aspx
Or you could combine it with Enterprise Library Logging Application Block.
I found a blog post which seems to do what I want - you create a class that implements IDispatchMessageInspector. In the AfterReceiveRequest method, you have access to the whole incoming message, so can log away. This occurs after authentication, so you also have access to the user name - handy for logging. You can create supporting classes that let you assign this behaviour to services via attributes and/or configuration.
IDispatchMessageInspector also gives you a BeforeSendReply method, so you could log (or alter) your response message.
Now when customers attempt to literally hand-craft SOAP request messages (not even using some kind of DOM object) to our services, we have easy-to-access proof that they are sending rubbish!

Fix problematic server response in WCF

I am using WCF as a client for a java web service. I have not control over the server side.
In the response I get from the web service there is no xmlns attribute on the first element inside the soap headers. Because of this WCF returns null as the result of web service call.
Apart from the missing xmlns the response is perfect and if I add the xmlns using fiddler then everything works as expected. I don't know enough about SOAP to know if the xmlns attribute is really required.
Is there a way to avoid this problem, either getting WCF to ignore the missing xmlns attribute or even a hook that would allow me to manually munge the response before it gets to WCF?
This appears to be a pretty old question, so I'm not sure if you ever addressed this. If you are working with a WCF client for a Java Axis service, you will find that you will need to get used to using MessageInspectors to override the behavior of the request and response.
Using the AfterReceiveReply method you should be able to copy the original message and alter the headers. Also check out Step 5 from this MSDN article.
You can't alter the response headers directly in this method as far as I can see, because they are read-only, therefore copying and then replacing the reply with a doctored version is the only way I can think of to correct the missing namespace.