Post XML data From VB application to ASP.NET Application

Introduction

This article discusses how to post XML data VB application to an ASP.NET application.

1. Create Sender Application in VB 6.0
2. Create Receiver Application in ASP.NET 2.0
3. Post XML from Sender Application
4. Verify Response XML is received or not
5. Verify Request XML is generated in Receivers application

1. Create Sender Application in VB 6.0

Create a VB Standard EXE project and create form as shown below:

The source code is as follows:

Private Sub Command1_Click()

Dim url As String
url = Text1.Text

'HTTP variable
Dim myHTTP As MSXML2.XMLHTTP

'HTTP object
Set myHTTP = CreateObject("msxml2.xmlhttp")

'create dom document variable  ‘stores the xml to send
Dim myDom As MSXML2.DOMDocument

'Create the DomDocument Object
Set myDom = CreateObject("MSXML2.DOMDocument")

'Load entire Document before moving on
myDom.async = False

'xml string variable
'replace with location if sending from file or URL
Dim myxml As String
myxml = Text2.Text

'loads the xml
'change to .Load for file or url
myDom.loadXML (myxml)
 
'open the connection
myHTTP.open "post", url, False

myHTTP.setRequestHeader "Content-Type", "text/xml;charset=utf-8"
myHTTP.setRequestHeader "Connection", "keep-alive"
myHTTP.setRequestHeader "Accept", "text/xml, multipart/related, 
	text/html, image/gif, image/jpeg, *; q=.2, */*; q=.2"

myDom.async = False
myDom.loadXML myxml
myHTTP.send myDom.xml

'send the XML
'myHTTP.send (myDom.xml)

'Display the response
MsgBox myHTTP.responseText
Label3.Caption = "Request XML is Posted Successfully"
Set myHTTP = Nothing
  
End Sub

Private Sub Form_Load()
Text1.Text = "http://10.32.111.20/CaptureXML/CaptureIpXml.aspx"
Text2.Text = "<?xml version=""1.0""?>" & _
            "<Req>" & _
            "<Id>1024634</Id>" & _
            "<Status>0</Status>" & _
            "</Req>"
End Sub

Your sender application is ready now. Next, let us create a Receiver application.

2. Create Receiver Application in ASP.NET

In CaptureXML.aspx page, remove all the default HTML content except page directive.

Page directive of CaptureXML.aspx page should contain as below:

<%@ Page Language="C#" ResponseEncoding="UTF-8" ContentType="text/XML" 
CodeFile="CaptureXml.aspx.cs" Inherits="CaptureXml" %>

Source code of CaptureXML.aspx.cs is as follows:

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Collections;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Security;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;
using System.IO;
using System.Xml;
using System.Collections.Specialized;
using System.Text;

public partial class CaptureXml : System.Web.UI.Page
{
    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {               
            Int32 len = (Int32)this.Request.InputStream.Length;
            byte[] myData = new byte[len];
            this.Request.InputStream.Position = 0;
            this.Request.InputStream.Read(myData, 0, len);

        //write the data to the file
        DateTime t=DateTime.Now;
        //dt = dt.AddDays(14);

        string timeStamp = t.Year.ToString() + "_" + t.Month.ToString() + "_" + 
        t.Day.ToString() + "_" + t.Hour.ToString() + "_" + t.Second.ToString() + 
        "_" + t.Millisecond.ToString();
        string filepath = @"E:\CaptureXML\" + GetTimeStampString() + "_1.xml";
        //create a file steam object to write the data
        FileStream fs = new FileStream(filepath, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write);        

        fs.Write(myData, 0, (int)len);
        fs.Flush();
        fs.Close();

        string respfilepath = @"E:\CaptureXML\Response.xml";
        string strResonse = Utility.ReadResponseFromFile(respfilepath);

        byte[] opStream1 = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(strResonse.ToCharArray());

        this.Response.OutputStream.Write(opStream1, 0, opStream1.Length);       
    }

public static string GetTimeStampString()
    {       
        DateTime strReqTimeStamp = DateTime.Now;
        string strRetTimeStamp = strReqTimeStamp.Year.ToString() + 
        " " + strReqTimeStamp.Month.ToString() + " " + 
            strReqTimeStamp.Day.ToString() + " " +strReqTimeStamp.Hour.ToString() + " " + 
            strReqTimeStamp.Minute.ToString() + " " + strReqTimeStamp.Second.ToString() + 
            " " + strReqTimeStamp.Millisecond.ToString();
        return strRetTimeStamp;
    }
}

Deploy the CaptureXML application in IIS. Try to access the complete URL from the browser including IP address. For example, http://10.32.111.20/CaptureXML/CaptureIpXml.aspx.

Also create a default Response XML and name it as Response.xml. This is the default response XML will show to the sender application when requested.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><Response> Recieved </Response>

3. Post XML from Sender Application

• Send XML: Create EXE for sender application, then
• Enter the URL in the URL text box
• Enter the XML which you need to post in XML multitext box.
• Click on Post XML button

4. Verify Response XML is Received or Not

You will be able to see response XML in the message box as below:

Also you can able see the From Label, message is successfully posted.

5. Verify Request XML is Generated in Receiver's Application

Browser to the CaptureXML folder and check the request XML created by date.

Request XML created in this name: 2011 6 10 17 22 15 626_1.xml.

Content of Request XML posted to receiver application is as follows:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<Req>
	<Id>0001</Id>
</Req>

Troubleshooting

If receiver application is unable to receive XML, verify: XML encoding type “text / XML”

History

• 27^th June, 2011: Initial post