Reflecting a Web Service

[=?Utf-8?B?cg==?=]

Does anyone know how I can hit a generic web service and pull back all
exposed methods and properties?

[John Saunders [MVP]]

Re: Reflecting a Web Service

"r" <r@discussions. microsoft.comwr ote in message
news:EE8217EC-8C92-47A4-AD38-82BC6D2B1EE7@mi crosoft.com...

Does anyone know how I can hit a generic web service and pull back all
exposed methods and properties?

Web services don't have methods and properties. They have a WSDL, which may
point to one or more other WSDL or schema files.

Also, web services don't have properties. Only methods.

--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Saunders | MVP – Windows Server System – Connected System Developer

[=?Utf-8?B?cg==?=]

Re: Reflecting a Web Service

What I want to do is build a WinForms wizard that allows users to connect to
a web service and reflect through each of the webmethods bringing back each
webmethod parameter and it's type.

Sorry, I wan't clear about "properties ", but I've seen web services which
contain public class or struct objects, I'd also like to pull methods,
properties, etc. for those objects, if possible.

Is there a way for me to use reflection to get this information? If not and
I need to parse the .WSDL, how do I get the raw XML for the WSDL
programmaticall y?

[John Saunders [MVP]]

Re: Reflecting a Web Service

"r" <r@discussions. microsoft.comwr ote in message
news:38946815-FA96-4031-9728-212C893927FA@mi crosoft.com...

What I want to do is build a WinForms wizard that allows users to connect
to
a web service and reflect through each of the webmethods bringing back
each
webmethod parameter and it's type.
>
Sorry, I wan't clear about "properties ", but I've seen web services which
contain public class or struct objects, I'd also like to pull methods,
properties, etc. for those objects, if possible.
>
Is there a way for me to use reflection to get this information? If not
and
I need to parse the .WSDL, how do I get the raw XML for the WSDL
programmaticall y?

You're going to have a lot of fun with this. ;-)

If you're talking about a .ASMX web service in .NET, it will return you its
WSDL when you send a request to http://localhost/YourService.asmx?WSDL. This
assumes that it's not configured to ignore such requests.

You should use the System.Web.Serv ices.Descriptio n.ServiceDescri ption class
(see
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/lib...cription.aspx).
This has a static Read method that you can pass the above URL to, and it
will read in the WSDL. It then creates an object model of the WSDL that you
can navigate through.
--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Saunders | MVP – Windows Server System – Connected System Developer

[=?Utf-8?B?cg==?=]

Re: Reflecting a Web Service

This is exactly what I needed ( I think ;) ) I was already passing in the
the ?wsdl, but I couldn't get the raw xml, so the ServiceDescript ion class
looks like the missing piece.

Thanks!

"John Saunders [MVP]" wrote:

"r" <r@discussions. microsoft.comwr ote in message
news:38946815-FA96-4031-9728-212C893927FA@mi crosoft.com...

What I want to do is build a WinForms wizard that allows users to connect
to
a web service and reflect through each of the webmethods bringing back
each
webmethod parameter and it's type.

Sorry, I wan't clear about "properties ", but I've seen web services which
contain public class or struct objects, I'd also like to pull methods,
properties, etc. for those objects, if possible.

Is there a way for me to use reflection to get this information? If not
and
I need to parse the .WSDL, how do I get the raw XML for the WSDL
programmaticall y?

>
You're going to have a lot of fun with this. ;-)
>
If you're talking about a .ASMX web service in .NET, it will return you its
WSDL when you send a request to http://localhost/YourService.asmx?WSDL. This
assumes that it's not configured to ignore such requests.
>
You should use the System.Web.Serv ices.Descriptio n.ServiceDescri ption class
(see
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/lib...cription.aspx).
This has a static Read method that you can pass the above URL to, and it
will read in the WSDL. It then creates an object model of the WSDL that you
can navigate through.
--
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John Saunders | MVP – Windows Server System – Connected System Developer
>
>

[Jeremy]

Re: Reflecting a Web Service

Parsing the wsdl is a lot of work. I know that VS 2005 comes with a utility
wsdl.exe which if given a url to a web service it will build code (proxy
classes, etc) to invoke the web service. If you really want to do this
project, using this as a starting point. Build an app that can query a web
service wsdl and build proxy class code, then compile the code into a class
and once compiled use reflection to iterate through methods, parameter types
etc. wsdl.exe should show you how to query a web service and build proxy
class code. The reset is easy.

"r" <r@discussions. microsoft.comwr ote in message
news:38946815-FA96-4031-9728-212C893927FA@mi crosoft.com...

What I want to do is build a WinForms wizard that allows users to connect
to
a web service and reflect through each of the webmethods bringing back
each
webmethod parameter and it's type.
>
Sorry, I wan't clear about "properties ", but I've seen web services which
contain public class or struct objects, I'd also like to pull methods,
properties, etc. for those objects, if possible.
>
Is there a way for me to use reflection to get this information? If not
and
I need to parse the .WSDL, how do I get the raw XML for the WSDL
programmaticall y?