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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-08T00:54:59+00:00

I created an ASP.NET MVC4 Web API service (REST) with a single GET action.

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I created an ASP.NET MVC4 Web API service (REST) with a single GET action. The action currently needs 11 input values, so rather than passing all of those values in the URL, I opted to encapsulate those values into a single class type and have it passed as Content-Body. When I test in Fiddler, I specify the verb as GET, and enter the JSON text in the “Request Body” input box. This works great!

The problem is when I attempt to perform Load Testing in Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate. I am able to specify the GET action and the JSON Content-Body just fine. But when I run the Load test, VS reports exceptions of type ProtocolViolationException (Cannot send a content-body with this verb-type) in the test results. The test executes in 1ms so I suspect the exceptions are causing the test to immediately abort. What can I do to avoid those exceptions? I’d prefer to not change my API to use URL arguments just to work-around the test tooling. If I should change the API for other reasons, let me know. Thanks!

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I found it easier to put this answer rather than carry on the discussions.

    Sending content with GET is not defined in RFC 2616 yet it has not been prohibited. So as far as the spec is concerned we are in a territory that we have to make our judgement.

    GET is canonically used to get a resource. So you are retrieving this resource using this verb with the parameters you are sending. Since GET is both safe and idempotent, it is ideal for caching. Caching usually takes place based on the resource URI – and sometimes based on various headers. The point is cache implementations – AFAIK – would not use the GET content (and to be honest I have not seen any GET with content in real world). And it would not make sense to include the content in the key generation since it reduces the scalability of the caches.

    If you have parameters to send, they must be in the URI since this is part of what defines that URI. As such, I strongly believe sending content with GET is wrong.

    Even when you look at implementations such as OData, they put the criteria in the URI. I cannot imagine your (or any) applications requirements is beyond OData query requirements.

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