Question

In my WCF REST service, there is a method GetUser(username), which will

throw new WebFaultException<string>("there is no this user", HttpStatusCode.NotFound);

In my asp.net client, I want to catch above exception and show “there is no this user” on a label. But when I try coding as follow:

MyServiceClient client = new MyServiceClient;
try
{
    client.GetUser(username);
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    Label.Text = ex.Message;
}

It turns out show the message “NotFound” instead of “there is no this user”.

How can i do to show the message “there is no this user”?

---

20/4

In my REST service:

[OperationContract]
[WebGet(ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json,
        UriTemplate = "{username}")]
void GetUser(username);

.svc class :

 public void GetUser(username)
    {
        try
        {
            Membership.GetUser(username);
            WebOperationContext.Current.OutgoingResponse.StatusCode = HttpStatusCode.OK;
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            throw new WebFaultException<string>("there is no this user", HttpStatusCode.NotFound);
        }
    }

Answer 1

If you look into the documentation, it’s obvious that you should be showing the Detail, not the Message. Your line should be:

MyServiceClient client = new MyServiceClient;
try
{
    client.GetUser(username);
}
catch (FaultException<string> ex)
{
    var webFaultException = ex as WebFaultException<string>;
    if (webFaultException == null)
    {
       // this shouldn't happen, so bubble-up the error (or wrap it in another exception so you know that it's explicitly failed here.
       rethrow;
    }
    else
    {
      Label.Text = webFaultException.Detail;
    }
}

EDIT: changed exception type

Also, you should be catching the specific exception (WebFaultException<string>) that you’re interested in, not any-old exception that happens to be thrown. Especially, as you’ll only have the Detail on the WebFaultException<string> type, it’s not on Exception.

See the WebFaultException Class