MVC website doesn't receive string from client

Question

Client:

WebClient wc = new WebClient();
try
{
    string json = wc.UploadString("http://localhost:50001/Client/Index", "1");
    dynamic receivedData = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(json);
    Console.WriteLine("Result: {0};",receivedData.data);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Oh bother");
    Console.WriteLine();
    Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
}

Basically sends "1" to the Index action in the Client controller.

Here is the Controller:

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Index(string k)
{
  Debug.WriteLine(String.Format("Result: {0};", k));
  return Json(new { data = k}, JsonRequestBehavior.DenyGet);
}

The result from the Client is just "Result: ;". The debug output from the controller is also "Result: ;". This means that the data is lost somewhere between the client and the site. But when I debug, Visual Studio says that there was one request.

stackoverflow.com/questions/5401501/… --Possible Duplicate — Taha Naqvi
– Taha Naqvi, Commented Apr 7, 2017 at 11:11
@TKHN Do you think it is because I use UploadString but not UploadData and it should be a byte array? — mitiko
– mitiko, Commented Apr 7, 2017 at 11:23

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 12:09:45Z

By adding the header and specifying the parameter name, I've managed to get this to work (in your calling method):

 static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            WebClient wc = new WebClient();
            try
            {
                wc.Headers[HttpRequestHeader.ContentType] = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";
                string json = wc.UploadString("http://localhost:49847/Home/Index", "k=1");
                dynamic receivedData = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(json);
                Console.WriteLine("Result: {0};", receivedData.data);
            }
            catch (Exception e)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Oh bother");
                Console.WriteLine();
                Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
            }
        }

From MSDN:

...set the HTTP Content-Type header to application/x-www-form-urlencoded, to notify the server that form data is attached to the post.

I haven't run fiddler to check what (if any) headers are sent through by default but I suspect the reason this doesn't work without the header is the receiving client doesn't know where to find the query string parameters passed through.

From another answer on StackOverflow:

When receiving a POST request, you should always expect a "payload", or, in HTTP terms: a message body. The message body in itself is pretty useless, as there is no standard (as far as I can tell. Maybe application/octet-stream?) format. The body format is defined by the Content-Type header. When using a HTML FORM element with method="POST", this is usually application/x-www-form-urlencoded.

Clint · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-07 10:57:46Z

2

WebAPI may be interpreting your argument as a URI argument.

Try this:

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Index([FromBody] string k)
{
    Debug.WriteLine(String.Format("Result: {0};", k));
    return Json(new { data = k}, JsonRequestBehavior.DenyGet);
}

This tells WebAPI to expect this argument to be lifted from the body of the request (e.g. a JSON post payload)

answered Apr 7, 2017 at 10:57

Clint

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1 Comment

mitiko Over a year ago

Doesn't work. Yet this is with [System.Web.Mvc.HttpPost]

Curiousdev · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-08 10:57:19Z

2

Try

            string parameters = string.Concat("k=","1");

            string url = "http://localhost:50001/Client/Index";
            using (Var wc = new WebClient()){

            wc.Headers[HttpRequestHeader.ContentType] = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded;charset=UTF-8";

            string result = wc.UploadString(url, parameters);

            JObject obj = JObject.Parse(result);

            Console.WriteLine("Result: {0};", obj.data);               

            }`

edited Apr 8, 2017 at 10:57

Curiousdev

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answered Apr 7, 2017 at 11:06

vsmash

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1 Comment

vsmash Over a year ago

` string parameters = string.Concat("k=","1"); string url = "localhost:50001/Client/Index"; using (Var wc = new WebClient()){ wc.Headers[HttpRequestHeader.ContentType] = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded;charset=UTF-8"; string result = wc.UploadString(url, parameters); JObject obj = JObject.Parse(result); Console.WriteLine("Result: {0};", obj.data); } `

Mike Debela · Accepted Answer · 2017-04-07 12:56:54Z

1

You need to slightly change your action to fetch posted value from Request stream:

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Index(string k)
{      
    var stream = Request.InputStream;
    string value = string.Empty;

    using (var reader = new StreamReader(stream))
    {
        value = reader.ReadToEnd();
    }

    Debug.WriteLine(String.Format("Result: {0};", value));
    return Json(new { data =  value}, JsonRequestBehavior.DenyGet);
}

edited Apr 7, 2017 at 12:56

answered Apr 7, 2017 at 12:51

Mike Debela

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