SOAP Interoperabilit y - Urgent

[Matt Wood]

Hi,

I have written a Web Service for a customer which expects a SOAP message
with Document/Literal encoding, and uses
RoutingStyle=So apServiceRoutin gStyle.RequestE lement to route the SOAP body
message to my Web Method. The Web Method expects a string as its parameter
and then feeds that string to an XML deserializer which maps the XML
elements contained within the string to my custom objects, then performs an
insert/update on an SQL Server database depending on whether the elements
exist in the database or not.

The example SOAP request generated by the .asmx page of my Webservice is:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<soap:Envelop e xmlns:xsi="http ://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:xsd="http ://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:soap="htt p://schemas.xmlsoap .org/soap/envelope/">
<soap:Body>
<SendDealerDa ta xmlns="urn:Send DealerData">
<dstDealerData> string</dstDealerData>
</SendDealerData>
</soap:Body>
</soap:Envelope>

Where the dstDealerData node contains the string which is passed to my Web
Method.

My issue is that when I send a request from a c# web services client, all
works perfectly, however when my customer sends a request from their client
(which is generated out of an Oracle database, not sure about the platform)
the request fails, returning the following SOAP fault:

<soap:Fault>
<faultcode>soap :Client</faultcode>
<faultstring>Sy stem.Web.Servic es.Protocols.So apException: Server was
unable to read request. ---&gt; System.InvalidO perationExcepti on: There is
an error in XML document (1, 591). ---&gt; System.Xml.XmlE xception:
'Element' is an invalid node type. Line 1, position 591.
at System.Xml.XmlR eader.ReadEleme ntString()
at
Microsoft.Xml.S erialization.Ge neratedAssembly .XmlSerializati onReader1.Read2 _SendDealerData ()
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at System.Xml.Seri alization.XmlSe rializer.Deseri alize(XmlReader
xmlReader, String encodingStyle)
at System.Xml.Seri alization.XmlSe rializer.Deseri alize(XmlReader
xmlReader)
at System.Web.Serv ices.Protocols. SoapServerProto col.ReadParamet ers()
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at System.Web.Serv ices.Protocols. SoapServerProto col.ReadParamet ers()
at System.Web.Serv ices.Protocols. WebServiceHandl er.Invoke()
at
System.Web.Serv ices.Protocols. WebServiceHandl er.CoreProcessR equest()</faultstring>
<detail />
</soap:Fault>

I have used a trace program to analyse the differences in SOAP requests (the
customer and myself have both sent the same data within the
<dstDealerData> </dstDealerData> nodes of the SOAP envelope) - the
difference I have found is that when the data is sent via my c# client, all
'<' and '>' characters within the dstDealerData node are substituted for
'&lt;' and '&gt;' respectively, whilst when my customer sends the request
from their environment, the '<' and '>' characters are retained within the
dstDealerData node. If I use the data from my customer's soap request and
send that from my c# client, all works fine as the c# client performs the
necessary character substitution.

I have tried writing a SOAP Extension which intercepts the incoming SOAP
message before it is passed to my Web Method (in the BeforeDeseriali ze SOAP
message stage) and performs the necessary character substitution on the '<'
and '>' characters within the <dstDealerData> </dstDealerData> nodes of the
message, then rewrites the message to the
HttpContext.Cur rent.Items["SoapMessag e"] object, however I now receive the
following SOAP fault:

<soap:Fault>
<faultcode>soap :Server</faultcode>
<faultstring>Sy stem.Web.Servic es.Protocols.So apException: The root
element for the request could not be determined. When RoutingStyle is set to
RequestElement, SoapExtensions configured via an attribute on the method
cannot modify the request stream before it is read. The extension must be
configured via the SoapExtensionTy pes element in web.config, or the request
must arrive at the server as clear text. ---&gt; System.Xml.XmlE xception:
The root element is missing.
at System.Xml.XmlT extReader.Read( )
at System.Xml.XmlR eader.MoveToCon tent()
at
System.Web.Serv ices.Protocols. SoapServerProto colHelper.GetRe questElement()
at
System.Web.Serv ices.Protocols. Soap11ServerPro tocolHelper.Rou teRequest()
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at
System.Web.Serv ices.Protocols. Soap11ServerPro tocolHelper.Rou teRequest()
at System.Web.Serv ices.Protocols. SoapServerProto col.Initialize( )
at System.Web.Serv ices.Protocols. ServerProtocolF actory.Create(T ype type,
HttpContext context, HttpRequest request, HttpResponse response,
Boolean&amp; abortProcessing )</faultstring>
<detail />
</soap:Fault>

Which is obviously indicating that I can not use a SOAP extension when the
routing style is set to Request Element. What other options do I have for
making my Web Method accept the data in the format they are sending it? Do I
need to change the type of object my Web Method accepts as a parameter from
string to something else?

Cheers,

Matt