Writing RESTful JSON services with WCF is fun; in fact I do it for a living. One thing that every developer finds useful is a small program for testing calls, trying new ideas etc so here is my C# test harness for handling POST requests.
private static void PostThis()
{
const string baseUrl = "http://127.0.0.1";
const string port = ":81/";
const string serviceEndpoint = "Rest.svc/";
const string serviceAction = "Client/user@email.com/";
//Create URL to POST request data too.
string url = baseUrl + port +
serviceEndpoint + serviceAction;
Console.WriteLine("Making POST request to: " + url);
Uri address = new Uri(url);
//Create webRequest
HttpWebRequest request = WebRequest.Create(address)
as HttpWebRequest;
//the Method property of the request to POST
request.Method = "POST";
//Set the ContentType to json
//our service is expecting WebMessageFormat.Json
request.ContentType = "application/json; charset=utf-8";
//define the parameters
string data = "{\"password\":\"S3cretP@ssw0rd\"}";
//Create a byte array from your parameters
byte[] byteData = UTF8Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(data);
//Set the content length in the request headers
//this may require back end service alterations
request.ContentLength = byteData.Length;
//Make the request by streaming the data
using (Stream dataStream = request.GetRequestStream())
{
dataStream.Write(byteData, 0, byteData.Length);
dataStream.Close();
}
try
{
//Receive the response
HttpWebResponse response = request.GetResponse()
as HttpWebResponse;
//Get the response stream
if (response != null)
{
StreamReader reader = new
StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream());
//Write output to the console
Console.WriteLine();
Console.WriteLine("Response: ");
Console.WriteLine(reader.ReadToEnd());
//Final cleanup
reader.Close();
response.Close();
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
//Display exceptions
Console.WriteLine(ex.ToString());
}
Console.WriteLine("Press enter to quit");
Console.ReadLine();
}
Many examples exist on the web for making POST webRequests but most of them specify the incorrect ContentType for JSON WCF services, usually you will find this:
request.ContentType = “application/x-www-form-urlencoded”;
Instead for JSON services you need to use:
request.ContentType = “application/json; charset=utf-8″;
If you use the incorrect ContentType you will get the following http 400 error
“The remote server returned an error: (400) Bad Request”
Simply change the service endpoints constants at the top of the code to your details and test away. I like to run the code in a simple console application. I may do a separate post on the WCF service configuration if I get time.
Also, if you’re looking for a nifty tool to test JSON response data look no further than these guys http://jsonformatter.curiousconcept.com/
