Question

I am calling a json web service that sends error messages by setting StatusCode to 500 and then sending error message as response text (such as { “Message”: “InvalidUserName” } ).

Problem is that ASP.NET does not give me the response text if web service sends statuscode 500.

try
{
    WebRequest request = WebRequest.Create(URL);
    request.Method = "POST";
    request.ContentType = "application/json; charset=utf-8";

    HttpWebResponse response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse();
    StreamReader streamReader = new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream(), Encoding.UTF8);
    string result = streamReader.ReadToEnd();
    streamReader.Close();
    response.Close();

    return result;
}
catch (Exception e)
{
    // If web service sends 500 error code then we end up here. 
    // But there is no way to get response text :-(
}

Is there a way to solve this? Also: I am controlling the web service, so it might be a solution to do some change their. (Note: I need to call the service using plain WebRequest stuff – in this case it will not work with other methods such as adding as WebReference etc)

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Catch WebException instead. It has a Response property containing the response. Be sure to check for null before using it.