Pass array of srtucts as WCF method parameter in HTTP GET

Question

i have a WCF Method that receives array of structs. the struct contains two strings "Key" and "Value":

public struct mydata
{
    public String key;
    public String value;
}

[ServiceContract]
public interface IBasicService
{

    [OperationContract]
    [WebGet(UriTemplate = "ReceiveStructsOfData?myDataArray={???????? WHAT DO I WRITE HERE?????}")] 
    void ReceiveStructsOfData(mydata[] myDataArray);

}

i want the method to support HTTP "GET". i already know how to config a WCF to support "GET" ( endpoint and WebGETAttribute). What do i write in the UriTemplate of WebGet ( see above example) ??

how will the Client code look like using Framework 2.0 (HttpWebRequest) ?

HttpWebRequest myHttpWebRequest = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("http://localhost/BasicWCF/BasicService.svc/ReceiveStructsOfData?myDataArray={???????? WHAT DO I WRITE HERE?????}");
        myHttpWebRequest.Method = "GET";
        HttpWebResponse myHttpWebResponse = (HttpWebResponse)myHttpWebRequest.GetResponse();

thank you...

Answer 1

The thing you provide between the curly braces is the name of the parameter, which will be substituted by a value. So the service method would look like:

[OperationContract]  
[WebGet(UriTemplate = "ReceiveStructsOfData?myDataArray={myDataArray}")]  
void ReceiveStructsOfData(mydata[] myDataArray)
{
}

Notice the string between the braces is the same as the parameter name - that's how the mapping of requests to methods is done.

When calling the service, you should take care to serialize the array to a string. After all, you are passing parameters in the URL, which is itself a string. Normally I wouldn't pass such a param to a GET method. If it was a PUT method and you were passing params in the request (not the URL), then you could serialize them as JSON or XML, depending on the service.

Answer 2

Thanks Slavo,

i serialized an example struct array like the above (with just two structs).

MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream();
BinaryFormatter binaryFormatter = new BinaryFormatter();
binaryFormatter.Serialize(memoryStream, myDataArray);
string str = System.Convert.ToBase64String(memoryStream.ToArray());

the result was that i got a long string that looks like this: ""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"

It is too long , considering that my client has to add it into the "GET" URL and considering this is only an array of only two structs. is here a different shorter way to send a struct Array in a "GET" http request?