Passing parameters to a VB.NET WS hosted on Windows Azure from an Android client

Question

I am struggling to send parameters to a VB.NET WS(web service) that is hosted on Windows Azure. Getting a simple hello world (no parameters) works fine, but for some reason my parameters on the web service side are null?

Web service function to be called (IService1.vb):

<OperationContract()>
Function GetAddition(ByVal number1 As Integer, ByVal number2 As Integer) As String

Function implementation (Service1.svc.vb):

Function GetAddition(ByVal number1 As Integer, ByVal number2 As Integer) As String  Implements IService1.GetAddition
    Return number1 + number2
End Function

Android client code:

import java.util.ArrayList;

import android.app.*;
import android.os.*;
import android.widget.TextView;

import org.ksoap2.SoapEnvelope;
import org.ksoap2.serialization.PropertyInfo;
import org.ksoap2.serialization.SoapObject;
import org.ksoap2.serialization.SoapSerializationEnvelope;
import org.ksoap2.transport.HttpTransportSE;
import org.xmlpull.v1.XmlPullParserException;

public class Test2Activity extends Activity {
TextView tv;

private static final String SOAP_ACTION = "http://tempuri.org/IService1/";    
private static final String NAMESPACE = "http://tempuri.org/";    
private static final String URL = "http://a42c90a9e3e74fffa7b0093001f51de8.cloudapp.net/Service1.svc";    

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.main);
    System.setProperty("http.keepAlive", "false");
    tv=(TextView)findViewById(R.id.textView1);               

    ArrayList<Object> tmpParam = new ArrayList<Object>();
    tmpParam.add(1);
    tmpParam.add(4);

    String result = call("GetAddition", tmpParam, new String[]{"number1","number2"});
    //String result = call("GetHello", new ArrayList<Object>(), new String[]{""}); //works

    tv.setText(result);


    }

public String call(String methodName, ArrayList<Object> arrParameterValues, String arrParameterNames[])
{
    try {

        SoapObject request = new SoapObject(NAMESPACE, methodName);

        for (int k = 0;k < arrParameterValues.size() ; k++){
            PropertyInfo tmp = new PropertyInfo();
            tmp.setName(arrParameterNames[k]);
            tmp.setValue(arrParameterValues.get(k));
            tmp.setType(int.class); //hard coded for now
            request.addProperty(tmp);
        }
        //tried
        /*
        request.addProperty("number1",1);
        request.addProperty("number2",1);
        */

        SoapSerializationEnvelope envelope = new SoapSerializationEnvelope(SoapEnvelope.VER11);

        envelope.setOutputSoapObject(request);
        HttpTransportSE androidHttpTransport = new HttpTransportSE(URL);
        androidHttpTransport.call(SOAP_ACTION.concat(methodName) , envelope);

        //If an XmlPullParserException occurs, retry once in order to workaround an Android emulator bug
        try {
            androidHttpTransport.call(SOAP_ACTION.concat(methodName), envelope);
        } 
        catch(XmlPullParserException ex) {
            ex.printStackTrace();

            androidHttpTransport.call(SOAP_ACTION.concat(methodName), envelope);
        }

        Object result = envelope.getResponse();                 
        return result.toString();
    }
    catch(Exception ex) {
        return ex.toString();
    }
}   
}//end of class

The value returned is 0. With other string parameterized functions, no strings are received on the client.

I am using ksoap2-android-assembly-2.6.2-jar-with-dependencies, Android 2.1 and am developing in Eclipse 3.7.2. The web service was built in Visual Studios 2010

Some of you might be thinking: "Why VB and not C#?!" The reason is because I already have some experience in VB :)

Thanks

score 0 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 10:34

Can you pass parameters using a method like in the following question:

How to call a WCF service using ksoap2 on android?

Like:

 try {
    SoapObject request = new SoapObject(NAMESPACE, METHOD_NAME); 

    request.addProperty("Name", "Qing"); 

    SoapSerializationEnvelope envelope = new SoapSerializationEnvelope( 
            SoapEnvelope.VER11); 
    envelope.dotNet = true; 
    envelope.setOutputSoapObject(request); 


    HttpTransportSE androidHttpTransport = new HttpTransportSE(URL); 
    androidHttpTransport.call(SOAP_ACTION, envelope); 
    SoapPrimitive result = (SoapPrimitive)envelope.getResponse(); 

    //to get the data 
    String resultData = result.toString(); 
    // 0 is the first object of data  


    sb.append(resultData + "\n"); 
 } catch (Exception e) { 
    sb.append("Error:\n" + e.getMessage() + "\n"); 
 }

It works!!! Thanks Tom, but could you please tell me why? My guess is the `envelope.dotnet = true;` In some other posts, they say that this should be avoided as it is an ugly hack? — Luke, Apr 12 '12 at 05:43
I am pretty sure you are right. I think that was what caused the problem but you would have to look into it further to know for sure. — Tom, Apr 19 '12 at 18:15

Passing parameters to a VB.NET WS hosted on Windows Azure from an Android client

1 Answers1