Question

I have a SQL Server 2005 stored procedure that has a signature like this:

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[ProcTRequest] 
   @Pxml xml, @ClientCode varchar(10) 
AS
BEGIN
  ...
END

I’m tasked with writing an .asmx web service that will call this stored procedure. This is where I’m having a block.

If the parameter @Pxml is specified as string in the C# web method, we get

Server was unable to process request.

Then tried XmlText as the type for @Pxml, which resulted in

Server was unable to process request. Method MyWebService.MyWebMethod can not be reflected. There was an error
reflecting ‘PXml’. ->; There was an error reflecting type
‘System.Xml.XmlText’. -> System.Xml.XmlText cannot be used as: ‘xml
element’.

What is the correct way to call this stored procedure from a C# web method? Please note that the @Pxml parameter will always be a well-formed XML.

The person that will be calling this web service is using Curl on a Unix system.

Though the requirement is an ASMX, if this can be implemented via WCF, can you please show me how with a piece of pseudo code? I’m not familiar with WCF yet.

Please help. Thank you.

UPDATE: This is how I call the SP

 [WebMethod]
 public string GetRequestID(string PXml, string clientcode)
    {
        Database db = DatabaseFactory.CreateDatabase();
        using (IDataReader dr = db.ExecuteReader("ProcRequestID", PXml, clientcode))
        {
            return dr["RequestID"].ToString();
        }
    }

Answer 1

Couldn’t you use a string on the ASMX interface (so the caller send you a string), but inside the ASMX web service, you define the @PXml parameter on the stored procedure call as SqlDbType.Xml ? I think that ought to work ….

Something along the lines of :

[WebMethod]
public void MyWebMethod(string input, string clientCode)
{
        using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(your-connection-string-here))
        using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("dbo.ProcTRequest", conn))
        {
            cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;

            cmd.Parameters.Add("@Pxml", SqlDbType.Xml);
            cmd.Parameters.Add("@ClientCode", SqlDbType.VarChar, 10);

            cmd.Parameters["@Pxml"].Value = input;
            cmd.Parameters["@ClientCode"].Value = clientCode;

            conn.Open();
            cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
            conn.Close();
        }
}

Since you’re just calling the stored proc and not expecting a result set back – use ExecuteNonQuery instead of ExecuteReader.

Also vitally important : tell ADO.NET that you’re calling a stored procedure! That’s what this line does:

            cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;

Otherwise, ADO.NET by default expects to get full inline SQL statement and might just not be able to parse and execute that ….