Question

How do I create a dynamic response with out using the query string?

I want to dynamically output the response format based on what the user specifics inside of the message body.

For example, if the user inputs “json”,”xml”,”soap”, it will return the respective format. Thanks, in advance.

public interface IReg
{
    [OperationContract]
    [WebInvoke]
    MemberBasic Login(string uniqueID, string password, string returnFormat);
}

[DataContract(Namespace = "", IsReference=false)]
[Serializable()]
public class MemberBasic
{

    #region Properties
    [DataMember]
    public DateTime LastModified
    {
        get;
        set; 
    }
}
 [AspNetCompatibilityRequirements(RequirementsMode = AspNetCompatibilityRequirementsMode.Allowed)]
[ServiceBehavior(InstanceContextMode = InstanceContextMode.Single)]
public sealed class RWS : IReg
{


    public MemberBasic Login(string uniqueID, string password, string returnFormat)
    {
        MemberBasic result = new MemberBasic();
        setReturnFormat(returnFormat);
        return result;
    }
}
private static void Init(string returnFormat)
    {
        var response = WebOperationContext.Current.OutgoingResponse;
        response.Headers.Add("cache-Control", "no-cache");
        response.Headers.Add("Last-Modified", string.Format("{0:r}", DateTime.Today));

        switch (returnFormat)
        {
            case "xml":
                {
                    WebOperationContext.Current.OutgoingResponse.Format = WebMessageFormat.Xml;
                    WebOperationContext.Current.OutgoingRequest.Headers.Add(System.Net.HttpRequestHeader.ContentType, "application/json");
                } break;
            case "json":
                {
                    WebOperationContext.Current.OutgoingResponse.Format = WebMessageFormat.Json;
                } break;
            default:
                {
                    throw new ArgumentException("Return Format unrecognized; cannot complete request.",
                        "returnFormat");
                }
        }
    }       

Answer 1

The simplest way to do what you are after is to create different endpoints with different bindings. You can have one for POX, SOAP and JSON. They can share contracts and implementations but WCF/configuration is responsible for managing the request/response formats.

It doesn’t make a lot of sense to have SOAP specified as the response format since, in WCF it would mean the request would also have to be a SOAP request.