Question

Really having trouble trying to implement this in my controller. Essentially as it stands I have a controller than when it completes passes the user to a URL as below:

    <HttpPost()>
    Function Create(job As Job) As ActionResult
        If ModelState.IsValid Then
            db.Jobs.Add(job)
            db.SaveChanges()
            Dim url As String = "/RequestedService/AddService/" + job.JobId.ToString()
            Return Redirect(url)
        End If

        Return View(job)
    End Function

However I am trying to implement the functionality to send an SMS each time this controller is called and have got this working with a URL like (made up without username or password):
http://go.bulksms.com:1557/send?username=fred&message=hello
This needs to be accessed via an HTTP post request. I understand I can return this URL in the ‘Return Redirect’ above but I want both to happen (the redirect and the post on this link sending the SMS) and ideally I want the user to be redirected to the page as it happens now but the SMS to be sent in the background. How would I implement this?

Answer 1

Try this. New code is added between two comment line. You can also consult this url for details, if it’s a POST you might have to pass some form data, it’s all described in the link above.:

<HttpPost()>
    Function Create(job As Job) As ActionResult
        If ModelState.IsValid Then
            db.Jobs.Add(job)
            db.SaveChanges()
            'Sending SMS here: (start)
            Dim request as WebRequest = WebRequest.Create("http://go.bulksms.com:1557/send?username=fred&message=hello")
            request.Method = "POST"
            Dim response As WebResponse = request.GetResponse()

            'end
            Dim url As String = "/RequestedService/AddService/" + job.JobId.ToString()
            Return Redirect(url)
        End If

        Return View(job)
    End Function