IE9 Beta / WCF REST Service

This month's column answers frequently asked questions about implementing REST.

Jon Flanders

MSDN Magazine July 2009

Version 2. 0 of the Microsoft® . NET Framework makes numerous improvements at various levels in the Web services protocol stack. In addition, better tool support and an increased focus on interoperability make your life easier.

Aaron Skonnard

MSDN Magazine April 2005

Does anyone know of a C# code sample demonstrating WCF REST services and console test client with OperationContracts (GET and POST) implementing mutiple paramaters using BASIC authentication? Also, perhaps, using Fiddler as a test client as well? I have searched high and low for something like this, but have not had any success.

After I create a "REST Collection WCF Service" project, it contains one service "service.svc". Can I add multiple services to this project? There must be a way to do so. Otherwise, it does not make sense to create one project for each service.

My question is how to add a new service to an existing "REST Collection WCF Service" project?

Thanks a lot.

Hi ,

I have to call a REST web service method that is deployed remotely on a machine and i use VPN to connect through that url. It works fine when i use the browser to view the output of the web service method but i am unable to get the response in the code as i get an exception. The response status message is OK but when i try to read the response content from the streamreader i get the exception "ex = {"Unable to read data from the transport connection: The connection was closed."}". The content length is -1 in the HttpWebReponse object. Here is the code

        HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)HttpWebRequest.Create("http://10.0.0.61/metascan_rest/scanner?method=getengineinfo");

        //apply this url when working with the software
       // HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)HttpWebRequest.Create("http://localhost:1901/metascan_rest/scanner?method=getengineinfo");
       
        request.Method = "GET";
       
        WebResponse res = request.GetResponse();

        string status = ((HttpWebResponse)res).StatusDescription;

        Stream stream = res.GetResponseStream();
        StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(stream);

        try
        {
          //this is where the exception occurs
            string output = reader.ReadToEnd();

Using the rest 4 template.  I have a POST method defined, with an object as a parameter.  REST 4 does a great job of automatically mapping both xml and json posts to the method.  I tested this using an HttpClient test application to build and post xml content and then json content. 

I want to also support a standard form post to the method but am having problems!  

I'd like the same method already accepting and converting both xml and json to also work correctly for a form post.  I am testing this by creating an HttpUrlEncoded form in the test client, adding form name/value pairs that match what the method is expecting, and trying to post it.

However I get a 400 Bad Request.  Here's some example code that is returning a 400 bad request:

            var client = new HttpClient();

            HttpUrlEncodedForm form = new HttpUrlEncodedForm();
            form.Add("Id", "99");
            form.Add("Message", "Message test with 'special' chars #!#");
            form.Add("IpAddress", "192.168.1.1");

            var response = client.Post("<valid-uri-here>", form.CreateHttpContent());
            response.EnsureStatusIsSuccessful();

            client.Disp

Using the rest 4 template.  I have a POST method defined, with an object as a parameter.  REST 4 does a great job of automatically mapping both xml and json posts to the method.  I tested this using an HttpClient test application to build and post xml content and then json content.  All data gets correctly mapped to the corresponding properties in my entity. 

I want to also support a standard form post to the method but am having problems! 

I'd like the same method already accepting and converting both xml and json to also work correctly for a form post.  I figured it would "just work" but no.

I am testing this by creating an HttpUrlEncoded form in the test client, adding form name/value pairs that match what the method is expecting, and trying to post it.

However I get a 400 Bad Request.  Here's some example code that is returning a 400 bad request:

Really straightforward but fails.  Ideas why? 

      var client = new HttpClient();

      HttpUrlEncodedForm form = new HttpUrlEncodedForm();
      form.Add("Id", "99"<