WCF Restfull WS post method and HTML form

Question

I have a simple .net web service published in IIS:

[OperationContract] [WebInvoke(Method = "GET", ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json, UriTemplate = "formTestGET?firstInput={firstInput}&socondInput={socondInput}")] string formTestGET(string firstInput, string socondInput); [OperationContract] [WebInvoke(Method = "POST", ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json, UriTemplate = "formTestPOST")] string formTestPOST(string testInput); 

Method Implementation:

  public string formTestGET(string firstInput, string socondInput) { try { return "First Input value: " + firstInput + " Second Input value: " + socondInput; } catch (Exception e) { return e.Message; } } public string formTestPOST(string testInput) { try { return "Post paramether value: " + testInput; } catch (Exception e) { return e.Message; } } 

My html form:

  <form method="post" action="http://localhost/HTML5RestfulService/Service1.svc/formTestPOST"> <fieldset> <legend>Form Post Request</legend> <input name="testInput"/> <button>Make Post Request</button> </fieldset> </form> 

I just want to use this service in html form. I have a problem with my POST method. It works fine when I call it using Ajax (from a java script), but through the form I can not get the answer. I get a "400 Bad Request" as an error.

Do I have to configure my WS differently when I want to call it through FORM?

Any advice please.

Answer 1

If you want to call the WCF service from the base form without ECMAScript (JavaScript), Silverlight or Flash, I think you should follow Mr. Chang's advice and change the input parameters of your TestPOST Operation form to one stream parameter.

See the following code for more details:

 // File: IService1.cs // (Based on work by Milos, Shawn Eary, Steven Cheng, and // Web Community) // // References // [1] - Cheng, Steven (MSFT); Bill2010 // How would I do the following form POST with WCF REST? // MSDN Forums: August 12, 2010 // http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/vstudio/en-US/dde73561-29c0-4c34-b18a-990ae114b92c/how-would-i-do-the-following-form-post-with-wcf-rest // [Cited: September 27, 2013] using System.ServiceModel; using System.ServiceModel.Web; using System.IO; [ServiceContract] public interface IService1 { // To post a basic HTML Form to a WCF Operation, I *think* Mr. Cheng // of Microsoft suggests that users put WCF into "Raw Data Transfer" // Mode by replacing all input parameters with a single Stream [1] [OperationContract] [WebInvoke(Method = "POST", ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json, UriTemplate = "formTestPOST")] string formTestPOST(Stream testInput); } 

and

 // File: Service1.cs // (Based on work by: Milos; Shawn Eary; all those listed // in the References Section below; and, the Web Community) // // References // [1] - Brian; Coderer; Kopp, Darren; James; user1749204 // How do you get a string from a MemoryStream? // Stack Overflow: September 29, 2008 // http://stackoverflow.com/questions/78181/how-do-you-get-a-string-from-a-memorystream // [Cited: September 27, 2013] // // [2] - Atlas, Mike; HaggleLad; Gravell, Marc // Parsing "multipart/form-data" in .NET/C# // Stack Overflow: November 11, 2009 // http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1716868/parsing-multipart-form-data-in-net-c // [Cited: September 27, 2013] // // [3] - antscode // Multipart Form Data Parser // CodePlex: 2009-2012 // http://multipartparser.codeplex.com/SourceControl/list/changesets // [Cited: September 27, 2013] // // [4] - Polidori, Lorenzo; Ed. S.; Woods, Jake // Uploading file from Flex to WCF REST Stream issues (how to decode multipart form post in REST WS) // Stack Overflow: January 20, 2012 // http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5423031/uploading-file-from-flex-to-wcf-rest-stream-issues-how-to-decode-multipart-form // [Cited: September 27, 2013] using System; using System.IO; using System.Web; public class Service1 : IService1 { public string formTestPOST(Stream testInput) { // Get the post data out of the Stream testInput // Now that your form sucessfully fired this operation, you // can use Brian technique mentioned at [1] to convert the // stream into a string StreamReader someReader = new StreamReader(testInput); String theInput = someReader.ReadToEnd(); // Unfortunately, various places on the internet seem to // indicate that data that you now have in your string // theInput is multipart form data. If you were willing // to use ASP.NET Compatibility Mode in your Interface, // then you could have used the trick here mentioned by // Mike Atlas and Mark Gravel in [2] but let assume // you cannot use compatibilty mode. Then you might // try a multipart parser like the one written by antscode // at [3] or you can just do what I did and guess your // way through. Since you have a simple form, you can // just guess your way through the parsing by replacing // "testInput" with nothing and UrlDecoding what is left. // That won't work on more complex forms but it works on // this example. You get some more backround on this // and why UrlDecode is necessary at [4] theInput = theInput.Replace("testInput=", ""); theInput = HttpUtility.UrlDecode(theInput); return "Post paramether value: " + theInput; } }