Question

What I’m looking to do is make an HTTP post to a server URL (ASP.NET MVC url) and send an XML file with the request.
I’m worried (maybe shouldn’t be?) that if I simply stick the XML string into the request stream it may be too long?

I’m almost positive there was a way to actually add a file itself to the HttpWebRequest, then extract that file on the server side.

This is a Silverlight assembly making a call to an ASP.NET MVC url.
So I’d also need to know how to extract the file on the MVC side from the request.

Thx

Answer 1

I’m worried (maybe shouldn’t be?) that if I simply stick the XML
string into the request stream it may be too long?

For this reason you should use a POST verb instead of GET.

On the client side you could use a WebRequest and write the XML payload directly to the request stream:

var request = WebRequest.CreateHttp("http://localhost:1398/home/upload");
request.Method = "POST";
request.BeginGetRequestStream(ar =>
{
    var r = (HttpWebRequest)ar.AsyncState;
    // create some XML document to send to the server
    var doc = XDocument.Parse("<root>Value</root>");
    using (var stream = r.EndGetRequestStream(ar))
    {
        doc.Save(stream);
    }
    r.BeginGetResponse(asyncState =>
    {
        var req = (HttpWebRequest)asyncState.AsyncState;
        using (var response = req.EndGetResponse(asyncState))
        using (var responseStream = response.GetResponseStream())
        using (var reader = new StreamReader(responseStream))
        {
            var result = reader.ReadToEnd();

            // TODO: do something with the server response
            Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(() =>
            {
                textBlock.Text = result;
            });
        }
    }, r);
}, request);

and on the server side you could have a controller:

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult Upload(XDocument xdoc)
    {
        ...
    }
}

and a custom model binder for the XDocument type:

public class XDocumentModelBinder : IModelBinder
{
    public object BindModel(ControllerContext controllerContext, ModelBindingContext bindingContext)
    {
        return XDocument.Load(controllerContext.HttpContext.Request.InputStream);
    }
}

which will be registered in Application_Start:

ModelBinders.Binders.Add(typeof(XDocument), new XDocumentModelBinder());