Question

I’m trying to call a WCF JSON service with HttpWebRequest

http://localhost/WCFService/class/sessions?startdate=\\/Date({0})\\/&endDate=\\/Date({1})\\/

This is my call

The value for the Dates is DateTime.Now.Ticks

The trace tells me “String was not recognized as a valid DateTime”.

I have tried not to escape the date, but still same result.

Answer 1

The format for DateTime values in the URI string is any format which can be recognized by DateTime.Parse. Something like startDate.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd") works out fine.

public class StackOverflow_8472985
{
    [ServiceContract]
    public class Service
    {
        [WebGet]
        public int DiffDates(DateTime startDate, DateTime endDate)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("[service] startDate: {0}", startDate);
            Console.WriteLine("[service] endDate: {0}", endDate);
            return (int)endDate.Subtract(startDate).TotalDays;
        }
    }
    public static void Test()
    {
        string baseAddress = "http://" + Environment.MachineName + ":8000/Service";
        WebServiceHost host = new WebServiceHost(typeof(Service), new Uri(baseAddress));
        host.Open();
        Console.WriteLine("Host opened");

        WebClient c = new WebClient();
        DateTime startDate = new DateTime(2011, 1, 1, 0, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Utc);
        DateTime endDate = new DateTime(2011, 12, 12, 0, 0, 0, DateTimeKind.Utc);

        string uri = string.Format(baseAddress + "/DiffDates?startdate={0}&endDate={1}",
            startDate.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd"),
            endDate.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd"));

        Console.WriteLine("URI: {0}", uri);
        Console.WriteLine(c.DownloadString(uri));

        Console.Write("Press ENTER to close the host");
        Console.ReadLine();
        host.Close();
    }
}