Question

I am learning asp.net, and trying to understand in consuming a webservice. I am using the following wsdl file

http://www.webservicex.net/uszip.asmx?WSDL

I am using a textbox to enter the zipcode, added the wsdl in the web reference , and am using C# to retrieve data. The structure of the data is as follows:

http://www.webservicex.net/uszip.asmx/GetInfoByZIP

I am not able to understand on how to display the results on a webpage. The following code is what I have until now..

protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    USZip s1 = new USZip();
    var input = zipcode.Text.ToString();
    String result = s1.GetInfoByZIP(input);

}

It would be great if anyone can give me helpful pointers

Thanks a lot

Answer 1

Hover over the call to GetInfoByZIP and you should see that it returns an XmlNode. Since there is no implicit conversion from an XmlNode to a string, then you should not be able to assign the result directly to a string. To get the string value, call the XmlNode property OuterXml, like so (make sure you have a multi-line text control):

XmlNode result = s1.GetInfoByZIP(input);    
YourTextControl.Text = result.OuterXml;

Per the WSDL, the call returns a GetInfoByZipResult, which can contain any XML (with no further specification in the WSDL). The XML I get looks like the XML below. So, if you want to get to the name of the City, State, etc., you will need to parse the XML.

<NewDataSet xmlns="">
  <Table>
    <CITY>Glendale</CITY> 
    <STATE>CA</STATE> 
    <ZIP>91210</ZIP> 
    <AREA_CODE>818</AREA_CODE> 
    <TIME_ZONE>P</TIME_ZONE> 
  </Table>
</NewDataSet>