Problem Calling web service from ASP

[Ken Pinard]

I am getting an internal error (500) when I call my web service from an ASP
script. If I put the http line into the browser it returns the correct
result. Below is the code I am using.

Please help,

Ken

strServer = http://localhost/pinrod/interface.asmx/validate

set httpobj = CreateObject("MSXML2.XMLHTTP")
httpobj.open "POST", strServer, false
httpobj.send() 'result
result = result & "after send: " & now & "<br>"
result = result & "status value: " & httpobj.status & "<br>"
result = result & "status text: " & httpobj.statustext & "<br>"


The definition of the web service is as follows:

<WebMethod()> _
Public Function ValidateOrder() As String
' Dim req As HttpRequest
Dim result As String = "<p>start validate order </p>"
Return result
End Function

 

[Ken Pinard]

Found it, the method name is case sensitive, it should have been:
strServer=http://localhost/pinrod/interface.asmx/Validate

<onSoapBox>
Why oh why does MS insist on keeping case sensitivity around when it is
arcahic as PDP-8s. I would expect that when I am using VBScript to talk to
VB.Net that it would be case insensitive. I know why it started, memory was
in bytes, programs were stored on paper tape. But it has been 25 years, why
do we have to suffer with being human pre-compiliers. (sorry had to get it
out)
</onSoapBox>

Ken

 

[Jan Tielens]

XML is case sensitive, SOAP uses XML, so SOAP is case sensistive. Since SOAP
is not owned by Microsoft, I don't think that it's Microsoft's fault.

 

[Ken Pinard]

So why would anyone make things case senstive? There is no reason that an
interface standard has to be this way. So MS doesn't own it. Who ever had a
hand in the process is stuck on the idea of keeping the concepts of "C"
around. Its about time that the programming world caught up to the 1980's.
FORTRAN, PASCAL, Ada and others all dealt with it. Why do we keep developing
standards that are arcahic?

Even if MS does not own it, why is this "Feature" so well undocumented on
the MS site? When I was reading all of the help I found no reference to this
type of issue. What a waste of time. Why should developers worry about case
when we can spend our time working design and concepts. MS may not have
created SOAP, maybe they had nothing to do with its input. Maybe MS had
nothing to do with the the creation of XML. Maybe they did. MS has never
worried about international standards before. Instead of following the bad
examples of the past maybe MS can lead the way to better programming
enviornments in the future. MS has always followed others, its time they
lead to better ideas.

Of course these comments are in my humble (though not quite) opinion. Its
just after all these years, why do programmers have to be pre-compiliers?
That is the job of the computer.

Ken

 

[Jan Tielens]

Ken

If you would have used your webservice from a .NET client, Visual Studio
..NET would have taken care of all the SOAP and XML stuff. So the
pre-compiler would have been VS.NET. But I agree with you, I've spent
quite some hours searching for an error which turned out to be a missing
case, that sucks!

 

[Ken Pinard]

Yes that would be nice, but not an option. Even as a programmer I still have
a manager. And being a manager does not mean that all decisions are the
best. So I live with what I have to do.

Which still does not give an excuse for doing things the hard way.
Especially since case insensititive compilers have been around since about
1959 (ALGOL).

For several years I had the good fortune to work in a language called Ada.
While most people groan at that name. I found it very easy to work in, it
took care of so many issues at compile time. It was very quick to develop
code in. Many people said it was not truely object oriented and that is why
it is not used. But I see all of the Ada capabilities except for one in Dot
Net. That last one is Generics and rumor has it coming in the next full
release.

Happy programming

Ken

 

[Jan Tielens]

Yes indeed, generics is comming in the next version of .NET! For more info,
check out this article:
http://www.microsoft.com/belux/nl/msdn/community/columns/wuyttersprot/generics.mspx

 

[Ken Pinard]

Yes,
I miss the generics. We had a bunch of them for Ada. It really does
allow for the creation of type safe functions. A heck of alot easier than
trying to do it with interfaces and inheritance. It can be accomplished but
a lot of work. This will be faster and more people will use it.

Ken