Getting RAW Soap Data from a Web Reference Client running in ASP net

Question

I m trying to trouble shoot a web service client in my current project   I m not sure of the platform of the Service Server  Most likely LAMP    I believe there is a fault on their side of the fence as i have eliminated the potential issues with my client   The client is a standard ASMX type web reference proxy auto generated from the service WSDL   What I need to get to is the RAW SOAP Messages  Request and Responses   What is the best way to go about this

User · Answer

You can implement a SoapExtension that logs the full request and response to a log file. You can then enable the SoapExtension in the web.config, which makes it easy to turn on/off for debugging purposes. Here is an example that I have found and modified for my own use, in my case the logging was done by log4net but you can replace the log methods with your own.

public class SoapLoggerExtension : SoapExtension
{
    private static readonly ILog log = LogManager.GetLogger(MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType);
    private Stream oldStream;
    private Stream newStream;

    public override object GetInitializer(LogicalMethodInfo methodInfo, SoapExtensionAttribute attribute)
    {
        return null;
    }

    public override object GetInitializer(Type serviceType)
    {
        return null;
    }

    public override void Initialize(object initializer)
    {

    }

    public override System.IO.Stream ChainStream(System.IO.Stream stream)
    {
        oldStream = stream;
        newStream = new MemoryStream();
        return newStream;
    }

    public override void ProcessMessage(SoapMessage message)
    {

        switch (message.Stage)
        {
            case SoapMessageStage.BeforeSerialize:
                break;
            case SoapMessageStage.AfterSerialize:
                Log(message, "AfterSerialize");
                    CopyStream(newStream, oldStream);
                    newStream.Position = 0;
                break;
                case SoapMessageStage.BeforeDeserialize:
                    CopyStream(oldStream, newStream);
                    Log(message, "BeforeDeserialize");
                break;
            case SoapMessageStage.AfterDeserialize:
                break;
        }
    }

    public void Log(SoapMessage message, string stage)
    {

        newStream.Position = 0;
        string contents = (message is SoapServerMessage) ? "SoapRequest " : "SoapResponse ";
        contents += stage + ";";

        StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(newStream);

        contents += reader.ReadToEnd();

        newStream.Position = 0;

        log.Debug(contents);
    }

    void ReturnStream()
    {
        CopyAndReverse(newStream, oldStream);
    }

    void ReceiveStream()
    {
        CopyAndReverse(newStream, oldStream);
    }

    public void ReverseIncomingStream()
    {
        ReverseStream(newStream);
    }

    public void ReverseOutgoingStream()
    {
        ReverseStream(newStream);
    }

    public void ReverseStream(Stream stream)
    {
        TextReader tr = new StreamReader(stream);
        string str = tr.ReadToEnd();
        char[] data = str.ToCharArray();
        Array.Reverse(data);
        string strReversed = new string(data);

        TextWriter tw = new StreamWriter(stream);
        stream.Position = 0;
        tw.Write(strReversed);
        tw.Flush();
    }
    void CopyAndReverse(Stream from, Stream to)
    {
        TextReader tr = new StreamReader(from);
        TextWriter tw = new StreamWriter(to);

        string str = tr.ReadToEnd();
        char[] data = str.ToCharArray();
        Array.Reverse(data);
        string strReversed = new string(data);
        tw.Write(strReversed);
        tw.Flush();
    }

    private void CopyStream(Stream fromStream, Stream toStream)
    {
        try
        {
            StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(fromStream);
            StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(toStream);
            sw.WriteLine(sr.ReadToEnd());
            sw.Flush();
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            string message = String.Format("CopyStream failed because: {0}", ex.Message);
            log.Error(message, ex);
        }
    }
}

[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Method)]
public class SoapLoggerExtensionAttribute : SoapExtensionAttribute
{
    private int priority = 1; 

    public override int Priority
    {
        get { return priority; }
        set { priority = value; }
    }

    public override System.Type ExtensionType
    {
        get { return typeof (SoapLoggerExtension); }
    }
}

You then add the following section to your web.config where YourNamespace and YourAssembly point to the class and assembly of your SoapExtension:

<webServices>
  <soapExtensionTypes>
    <add type="YourNamespace.SoapLoggerExtension, YourAssembly" 
       priority="1" group="0" />
  </soapExtensionTypes>
</webServices>

User · Answer

Try Fiddler2 it will let you inspect the requests and response   It might be worth noting that Fiddler works with both http and https traffic

User · Answer

Here s a simplified version of the top answer  Add this to the  lt configuration gt  element of your web config or App config file  It will create a trace log file in your project s bin Debug folder  Or  you can specify an absolute path for the log file using the initializeData attribute      lt system diagnostics gt       lt trace autoflush  true   gt       lt sources gt         lt source name  System Net  maxdatasize  9999  tracemode  protocolonly  gt           lt listeners gt             lt add name  TraceFile  type  System Diagnostics TextWriterTraceListener  initializeData  trace log   gt           lt  listeners gt         lt  source gt       lt  sources gt       lt switches gt         lt add name  System Net  value  Verbose   gt       lt  switches gt     lt  system diagnostics gt    It warns that the maxdatasize and tracemode attributes are not allowed  but they increase the amount of data that can be logged  and avoid logging everything in hex

User · Answer

I made following changes in web config to get the SOAP  Request Response  Envelope  This will output all of the raw SOAP information to the file trace log    lt system diagnostics gt     lt trace autoflush  true   gt     lt sources gt       lt source name  System Net  maxdatasize  1024  gt         lt listeners gt           lt add name  TraceFile   gt         lt  listeners gt       lt  source gt       lt source name  System Net Sockets  maxdatasize  1024  gt         lt listeners gt           lt add name  TraceFile   gt         lt  listeners gt       lt  source gt     lt  sources gt     lt sharedListeners gt       lt add name  TraceFile  type  System Diagnostics TextWriterTraceListener        initializeData  trace log   gt     lt  sharedListeners gt     lt switches gt       lt add name  System Net  value  Verbose   gt       lt add name  System Net Sockets  value  Verbose   gt     lt  switches gt   lt  system diagnostics gt

User · Answer

You haven t specified what language you are using but assuming C     NET you could use SOAP extensions   Otherwise  use a sniffer such as Wireshark

User · Answer

It looks like Tim Carter s solution doesn t work if the call to the web reference throws an exception  I ve been trying to get at the raw web resonse so I can examine it  in code  in the error handler once the exception is thrown  However  I m finding that the response log written by Tim s method is blank when the call throws an exception  I don t completely understand the code  but it appears that Tim s method cuts into the process after the point where  Net has already invalidated and discarded the web response   I m working with a client that s developing a web service manually with low level coding  At this point  they are adding their own internal process error messages as HTML formatted messages into the response BEFORE the SOAP formatted response  Of course  the automagic  Net web reference blows up on this  If I could get at the raw HTTP response after an exception is thrown  I could look for and parse any SOAP response within the mixed returning HTTP response and know that they received my data OK or not   Later      Here s a solution that does work  even after an execption  note that I m only after the response - could get the request too    namespace ChuckBevitt       class GetRawResponseSoapExtension   SoapExtension                 must override these three methods         public override object GetInitializer LogicalMethodInfo methodInfo  SoapExtensionAttribute attribute                        return null                    public override object GetInitializer Type serviceType                        return null                    public override void Initialize object initializer                               private bool IsResponse   false           public override void ProcessMessage SoapMessage message                          Note that ProcessMessage gets called AFTER ChainStream                That s why I m looking for AfterSerialize  rather than BeforeDeserialize             if  message Stage    SoapMessageStage AfterSerialize                  IsResponse   true              else                 IsResponse   false                     public override Stream ChainStream Stream stream                        if  IsResponse                                StreamReader sr   new StreamReader stream                   string response   sr ReadToEnd                    sr Close                    sr Dispose                     File WriteAllText   C  test txt   response                    byte   ResponseBytes   Encoding ASCII GetBytes response                   MemoryStream ms   new MemoryStream ResponseBytes                   return ms                             else                 return stream                      Here s how you configure it in the config file    lt configuration gt              lt system web gt       lt webServices gt         lt soapExtensionTypes gt           lt add type  ChuckBevitt GetRawResponseSoapExtension  TestCallWebService             priority  1  group  0    gt         lt  soapExtensionTypes gt       lt  webServices gt     lt  system web gt   lt  configuration gt     TestCallWebService  shoud be replaced with the name of the library  that happened to be the name of the test console app I was working in    You really shouldn t have to go to ChainStream  you should be able to do it more simply from ProcessMessage as   public override void ProcessMessage SoapMessage message        if  message Stage    SoapMessageStage BeforeDeserialize                StreamReader sr   new StreamReader message Stream           File WriteAllText   C  test txt   sr ReadToEnd             message Stream Position   0    Will blow up  cause type of stream   ConnectStream   doesn t alow seek so can t reset position           If you look up SoapMessage Stream  it s supposed to be a read-only stream that you can use to inspect the data at this point  This is a screw-up  cause if you do read the stream  subsequent processing bombs with no data found errors  stream was at end  and you can t reset the position to the beginning   Interestingly  if you do both methods  the ChainStream and the ProcessMessage ways  the ProcessMessage method will work because you changed the stream type from ConnectStream to MemoryStream in ChainStream  and MemoryStream does allow seek operations   I tried casting the ConnectStream to MemoryStream - wasn t allow    So       Microsoft should either allow seek operations on the ChainStream type or make the SoapMessage Stream truly a read-only copy as it s supposed to be   Write your congressman  etc      One further point  After creating a way to retreive the raw HTTP response after an exception  I still didn t get the full response  as determined by a HTTP sniffer   This was because when the development web service added the HTML error messages to the beginning of the response  it didn t adjust the Content-Length header  so the Content-Length value was less than the size of the actual response body  All I got was the Content-Length value number of characters - the rest were missing  Obviously  when  Net reads the response stream  it just reads the Content-Length number of characters and doesn t allow for the Content-Length value possibily being wrong  This is as it should be  but if the Content-Length header value is wrong  the only way you ll ever get the entire response body is with a HTTP sniffer  I user HTTP Analyzer from http   www ieinspector com

User · Answer

I realize I m quite late to the party  and since language wasn t actually specified  here s a VB NET solution based on Bimmerbound s answer  in case anyone happens to stumble across this and needs a solution  Note  you need to have a reference to the stringbuilder class in your project  if you don t already    Shared Function returnSerializedXML ByVal obj As Object  As String     Dim xmlSerializer As New System Xml Serialization XmlSerializer obj GetType        Dim xmlSb As New StringBuilder     Using textWriter As New IO StringWriter xmlSb          xmlSerializer Serialize textWriter  obj      End Using       returnSerializedXML   xmlSb ToString   Replace vbCrLf       End Function   Simply call the function and it will return a string with the serialized xml of the object you re attempting to pass to the web service  realistically  this should work for any object you care to throw at it too    As a side note  the replace call in the function before returning the xml is to strip out vbCrLf characters from the output   Mine had a bunch of them within the generated xml however this will obviously vary depending on what you re trying to serialize  and i think they might be stripped out during the object being sent to the web service

User · Answer

I made following changes in web config to get the SOAP  Request Response  Envelope  This will output all of the raw SOAP information to the file trace log    lt system diagnostics gt     lt trace autoflush  true   gt     lt sources gt       lt source name  System Net  maxdatasize  1024  gt         lt listeners gt           lt add name  TraceFile   gt         lt  listeners gt       lt  source gt       lt source name  System Net Sockets  maxdatasize  1024  gt         lt listeners gt           lt add name  TraceFile   gt         lt  listeners gt       lt  source gt     lt  sources gt     lt sharedListeners gt       lt add name  TraceFile  type  System Diagnostics TextWriterTraceListener        initializeData  trace log   gt     lt  sharedListeners gt     lt switches gt       lt add name  System Net  value  Verbose   gt       lt add name  System Net Sockets  value  Verbose   gt     lt  switches gt   lt  system diagnostics gt

User · Answer

I would prefer to have the framework do the logging for you by hooking in a logging stream which logs as the framework processes that underlying stream  The following isn t as clean as I would like it  since you can t decide between request and response in the ChainStream method  The following is how I handle it  With thanks to Jon Hanna for the overriding a stream idea  public class LoggerSoapExtension   SoapExtension       private static readonly string LOG DIRECTORY   ConfigurationManager AppSettings  LOG DIRECTORY        private LogStream  logger       public override object GetInitializer LogicalMethodInfo methodInfo  SoapExtensionAttribute attribute                return null            public override object GetInitializer Type serviceType                return null            public override void Initialize object initializer                  public override System IO Stream ChainStream System IO Stream stream                 logger   new LogStream stream           return  logger            public override void ProcessMessage SoapMessage message                if  LOG DIRECTORY    null                        switch  message Stage                                case SoapMessageStage BeforeSerialize                       logger Type    request                       break                  case SoapMessageStage AfterSerialize                      break                  case SoapMessageStage BeforeDeserialize                       logger Type    response                       break                  case SoapMessageStage AfterDeserialize                      break                                    internal class LogStream   Stream               private Stream  source          private Stream  log          private bool  logSetup          private string  type           public LogStream Stream source                         source   source                    internal string Type                       set    type   value                      private Stream Logger                       get                               if    logSetup                                        if  LOG DIRECTORY    null                                                try                                                       DateTime now   DateTime Now                              string folder   LOG DIRECTORY   now ToString  yyyyMMdd                                string subfolder   folder          now ToString  HH                                string client   System Web HttpContext Current    null  amp  amp  System Web HttpContext Current Request    null  amp  amp  System Web HttpContext Current Request UserHostAddress    null   System Web HttpContext Current Request UserHostAddress   string Empty                              string ticks   now ToString  yyyyMMdd T HHmmss fffffff                                if   Directory Exists folder                                   Directory CreateDirectory folder                               if   Directory Exists subfolder                                   Directory CreateDirectory subfolder                                log   new FileStream new System Text StringBuilder subfolder  Append       Append client  Append      Append ticks  Append      Append  type  Append   xml   ToString    FileMode Create                                                     catch                                                        log   null                                                                       logSetup   true                                    return  log                                  public override bool CanRead                       get                               return  source CanRead                                  public override bool CanSeek                       get                               return  source CanSeek                                   public override bool CanWrite                       get                               return  source CanWrite                                   public override long Length                       get                               return  source Length                                   public override long Position                       get                               return  source Position                            set                                source Position   value                                   public override void Flush                          source Flush                if  Logger    null                  Logger Flush                       public override long Seek long offset  SeekOrigin origin                        return  source Seek offset  origin                      public override void SetLength long value                         source SetLength value                      public override int Read byte   buffer  int offset  int count                        count    source Read buffer  offset  count               if  Logger    null                  Logger Write buffer  offset  count               return count                     public override void Write byte   buffer  int offset  int count                         source Write buffer  offset  count               if  Logger    null                  Logger Write buffer  offset  count                     public override int ReadByte                         int ret    source ReadByte                if  ret    -1  amp  amp  Logger    null                  Logger WriteByte  byte ret               return ret                    public override void Close                          source Close                if  Logger    null                  Logger Close                base Close                      public override int ReadTimeout                       get   return  source ReadTimeout                set    source ReadTimeout   value                      public override int WriteTimeout                       get   return  source WriteTimeout                set    source WriteTimeout   value                       AttributeUsage AttributeTargets Method   public class LoggerSoapExtensionAttribute   SoapExtensionAttribute       private int priority   1      public override int Priority               get                       return priority                    set                       priority   value                      public override System Type ExtensionType               get                       return typeof LoggerSoapExtension

User · Answer

Here s a simplified version of the top answer  Add this to the  lt configuration gt  element of your web config or App config file  It will create a trace log file in your project s bin Debug folder  Or  you can specify an absolute path for the log file using the initializeData attribute      lt system diagnostics gt       lt trace autoflush  true   gt       lt sources gt         lt source name  System Net  maxdatasize  9999  tracemode  protocolonly  gt           lt listeners gt             lt add name  TraceFile  type  System Diagnostics TextWriterTraceListener  initializeData  trace log   gt           lt  listeners gt         lt  source gt       lt  sources gt       lt switches gt         lt add name  System Net  value  Verbose   gt       lt  switches gt     lt  system diagnostics gt    It warns that the maxdatasize and tracemode attributes are not allowed  but they increase the amount of data that can be logged  and avoid logging everything in hex

User · Answer

I would prefer to have the framework do the logging for you by hooking in a logging stream which logs as the framework processes that underlying stream  The following isn t as clean as I would like it  since you can t decide between request and response in the ChainStream method  The following is how I handle it  With thanks to Jon Hanna for the overriding a stream idea  public class LoggerSoapExtension   SoapExtension       private static readonly string LOG DIRECTORY   ConfigurationManager AppSettings  LOG DIRECTORY        private LogStream  logger       public override object GetInitializer LogicalMethodInfo methodInfo  SoapExtensionAttribute attribute                return null            public override object GetInitializer Type serviceType                return null            public override void Initialize object initializer                  public override System IO Stream ChainStream System IO Stream stream                 logger   new LogStream stream           return  logger            public override void ProcessMessage SoapMessage message                if  LOG DIRECTORY    null                        switch  message Stage                                case SoapMessageStage BeforeSerialize                       logger Type    request                       break                  case SoapMessageStage AfterSerialize                      break                  case SoapMessageStage BeforeDeserialize                       logger Type    response                       break                  case SoapMessageStage AfterDeserialize                      break                                    internal class LogStream   Stream               private Stream  source          private Stream  log          private bool  logSetup          private string  type           public LogStream Stream source                         source   source                    internal string Type                       set    type   value                      private Stream Logger                       get                               if    logSetup                                        if  LOG DIRECTORY    null                                                try                                                       DateTime now   DateTime Now                              string folder   LOG DIRECTORY   now ToString  yyyyMMdd                                string subfolder   folder          now ToString  HH                                string client   System Web HttpContext Current    null  amp  amp  System Web HttpContext Current Request    null  amp  amp  System Web HttpContext Current Request UserHostAddress    null   System Web HttpContext Current Request UserHostAddress   string Empty                              string ticks   now ToString  yyyyMMdd T HHmmss fffffff                                if   Directory Exists folder                                   Directory CreateDirectory folder                               if   Directory Exists subfolder                                   Directory CreateDirectory subfolder                                log   new FileStream new System Text StringBuilder subfolder  Append       Append client  Append      Append ticks  Append      Append  type  Append   xml   ToString    FileMode Create                                                     catch                                                        log   null                                                                       logSetup   true                                    return  log                                  public override bool CanRead                       get                               return  source CanRead                                  public override bool CanSeek                       get                               return  source CanSeek                                   public override bool CanWrite                       get                               return  source CanWrite                                   public override long Length                       get                               return  source Length                                   public override long Position                       get                               return  source Position                            set                                source Position   value                                   public override void Flush                          source Flush                if  Logger    null                  Logger Flush                       public override long Seek long offset  SeekOrigin origin                        return  source Seek offset  origin                      public override void SetLength long value                         source SetLength value                      public override int Read byte   buffer  int offset  int count                        count    source Read buffer  offset  count               if  Logger    null                  Logger Write buffer  offset  count               return count                     public override void Write byte   buffer  int offset  int count                         source Write buffer  offset  count               if  Logger    null                  Logger Write buffer  offset  count                     public override int ReadByte                         int ret    source ReadByte                if  ret    -1  amp  amp  Logger    null                  Logger WriteByte  byte ret               return ret                    public override void Close                          source Close                if  Logger    null                  Logger Close                base Close                      public override int ReadTimeout                       get   return  source ReadTimeout                set    source ReadTimeout   value                      public override int WriteTimeout                       get   return  source WriteTimeout                set    source WriteTimeout   value                       AttributeUsage AttributeTargets Method   public class LoggerSoapExtensionAttribute   SoapExtensionAttribute       private int priority   1      public override int Priority               get                       return priority                    set                       priority   value                      public override System Type ExtensionType               get                       return typeof LoggerSoapExtension

User · Answer

Not sure why all the fuss with web config or a serializer class  The below code worked for me   XmlSerializer xmlSerializer   new XmlSerializer myEnvelope GetType      using  StringWriter textWriter   new StringWriter          xmlSerializer Serialize textWriter  myEnvelope       return textWriter ToString

User · Answer

You can implement a SoapExtension that logs the full request and response to a log file. You can then enable the SoapExtension in the web.config, which makes it easy to turn on/off for debugging purposes. Here is an example that I have found and modified for my own use, in my case the logging was done by log4net but you can replace the log methods with your own.

public class SoapLoggerExtension : SoapExtension
{
    private static readonly ILog log = LogManager.GetLogger(MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType);
    private Stream oldStream;
    private Stream newStream;

    public override object GetInitializer(LogicalMethodInfo methodInfo, SoapExtensionAttribute attribute)
    {
        return null;
    }

    public override object GetInitializer(Type serviceType)
    {
        return null;
    }

    public override void Initialize(object initializer)
    {

    }

    public override System.IO.Stream ChainStream(System.IO.Stream stream)
    {
        oldStream = stream;
        newStream = new MemoryStream();
        return newStream;
    }

    public override void ProcessMessage(SoapMessage message)
    {

        switch (message.Stage)
        {
            case SoapMessageStage.BeforeSerialize:
                break;
            case SoapMessageStage.AfterSerialize:
                Log(message, "AfterSerialize");
                    CopyStream(newStream, oldStream);
                    newStream.Position = 0;
                break;
                case SoapMessageStage.BeforeDeserialize:
                    CopyStream(oldStream, newStream);
                    Log(message, "BeforeDeserialize");
                break;
            case SoapMessageStage.AfterDeserialize:
                break;
        }
    }

    public void Log(SoapMessage message, string stage)
    {

        newStream.Position = 0;
        string contents = (message is SoapServerMessage) ? "SoapRequest " : "SoapResponse ";
        contents += stage + ";";

        StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(newStream);

        contents += reader.ReadToEnd();

        newStream.Position = 0;

        log.Debug(contents);
    }

    void ReturnStream()
    {
        CopyAndReverse(newStream, oldStream);
    }

    void ReceiveStream()
    {
        CopyAndReverse(newStream, oldStream);
    }

    public void ReverseIncomingStream()
    {
        ReverseStream(newStream);
    }

    public void ReverseOutgoingStream()
    {
        ReverseStream(newStream);
    }

    public void ReverseStream(Stream stream)
    {
        TextReader tr = new StreamReader(stream);
        string str = tr.ReadToEnd();
        char[] data = str.ToCharArray();
        Array.Reverse(data);
        string strReversed = new string(data);

        TextWriter tw = new StreamWriter(stream);
        stream.Position = 0;
        tw.Write(strReversed);
        tw.Flush();
    }
    void CopyAndReverse(Stream from, Stream to)
    {
        TextReader tr = new StreamReader(from);
        TextWriter tw = new StreamWriter(to);

        string str = tr.ReadToEnd();
        char[] data = str.ToCharArray();
        Array.Reverse(data);
        string strReversed = new string(data);
        tw.Write(strReversed);
        tw.Flush();
    }

    private void CopyStream(Stream fromStream, Stream toStream)
    {
        try
        {
            StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(fromStream);
            StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(toStream);
            sw.WriteLine(sr.ReadToEnd());
            sw.Flush();
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            string message = String.Format("CopyStream failed because: {0}", ex.Message);
            log.Error(message, ex);
        }
    }
}

[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Method)]
public class SoapLoggerExtensionAttribute : SoapExtensionAttribute
{
    private int priority = 1; 

    public override int Priority
    {
        get { return priority; }
        set { priority = value; }
    }

    public override System.Type ExtensionType
    {
        get { return typeof (SoapLoggerExtension); }
    }
}

You then add the following section to your web.config where YourNamespace and YourAssembly point to the class and assembly of your SoapExtension:

<webServices>
  <soapExtensionTypes>
    <add type="YourNamespace.SoapLoggerExtension, YourAssembly" 
       priority="1" group="0" />
  </soapExtensionTypes>
</webServices>

User · Answer

Not sure why all the fuss with web config or a serializer class  The below code worked for me   XmlSerializer xmlSerializer   new XmlSerializer myEnvelope GetType      using  StringWriter textWriter   new StringWriter          xmlSerializer Serialize textWriter  myEnvelope       return textWriter ToString

User · Answer

You haven t specified what language you are using but assuming C     NET you could use SOAP extensions   Otherwise  use a sniffer such as Wireshark

User · Answer

You haven t specified what language you are using but assuming C     NET you could use SOAP extensions   Otherwise  use a sniffer such as Wireshark

User · Answer

Try Fiddler2 it will let you inspect the requests and response   It might be worth noting that Fiddler works with both http and https traffic

User · Answer

You haven t specified what language you are using but assuming C     NET you could use SOAP extensions   Otherwise  use a sniffer such as Wireshark

User · Answer

I made following changes in web config to get the SOAP  Request Response  Envelope  This will output all of the raw SOAP information to the file trace log    lt system diagnostics gt     lt trace autoflush  true   gt     lt sources gt       lt source name  System Net  maxdatasize  1024  gt         lt listeners gt           lt add name  TraceFile   gt         lt  listeners gt       lt  source gt       lt source name  System Net Sockets  maxdatasize  1024  gt         lt listeners gt           lt add name  TraceFile   gt         lt  listeners gt       lt  source gt     lt  sources gt     lt sharedListeners gt       lt add name  TraceFile  type  System Diagnostics TextWriterTraceListener        initializeData  trace log   gt     lt  sharedListeners gt     lt switches gt       lt add name  System Net  value  Verbose   gt       lt add name  System Net Sockets  value  Verbose   gt     lt  switches gt   lt  system diagnostics gt

User · Answer

I realize I m quite late to the party  and since language wasn t actually specified  here s a VB NET solution based on Bimmerbound s answer  in case anyone happens to stumble across this and needs a solution  Note  you need to have a reference to the stringbuilder class in your project  if you don t already    Shared Function returnSerializedXML ByVal obj As Object  As String     Dim xmlSerializer As New System Xml Serialization XmlSerializer obj GetType        Dim xmlSb As New StringBuilder     Using textWriter As New IO StringWriter xmlSb          xmlSerializer Serialize textWriter  obj      End Using       returnSerializedXML   xmlSb ToString   Replace vbCrLf       End Function   Simply call the function and it will return a string with the serialized xml of the object you re attempting to pass to the web service  realistically  this should work for any object you care to throw at it too    As a side note  the replace call in the function before returning the xml is to strip out vbCrLf characters from the output   Mine had a bunch of them within the generated xml however this will obviously vary depending on what you re trying to serialize  and i think they might be stripped out during the object being sent to the web service

User · Answer

Try Fiddler2 it will let you inspect the requests and response   It might be worth noting that Fiddler works with both http and https traffic

User · Answer

I made following changes in web config to get the SOAP  Request Response  Envelope  This will output all of the raw SOAP information to the file trace log    lt system diagnostics gt     lt trace autoflush  true   gt     lt sources gt       lt source name  System Net  maxdatasize  1024  gt         lt listeners gt           lt add name  TraceFile   gt         lt  listeners gt       lt  source gt       lt source name  System Net Sockets  maxdatasize  1024  gt         lt listeners gt           lt add name  TraceFile   gt         lt  listeners gt       lt  source gt     lt  sources gt     lt sharedListeners gt       lt add name  TraceFile  type  System Diagnostics TextWriterTraceListener        initializeData  trace log   gt     lt  sharedListeners gt     lt switches gt       lt add name  System Net  value  Verbose   gt       lt add name  System Net Sockets  value  Verbose   gt     lt  switches gt   lt  system diagnostics gt

User · Answer

You can implement a SoapExtension that logs the full request and response to a log file. You can then enable the SoapExtension in the web.config, which makes it easy to turn on/off for debugging purposes. Here is an example that I have found and modified for my own use, in my case the logging was done by log4net but you can replace the log methods with your own.

public class SoapLoggerExtension : SoapExtension
{
    private static readonly ILog log = LogManager.GetLogger(MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType);
    private Stream oldStream;
    private Stream newStream;

    public override object GetInitializer(LogicalMethodInfo methodInfo, SoapExtensionAttribute attribute)
    {
        return null;
    }

    public override object GetInitializer(Type serviceType)
    {
        return null;
    }

    public override void Initialize(object initializer)
    {

    }

    public override System.IO.Stream ChainStream(System.IO.Stream stream)
    {
        oldStream = stream;
        newStream = new MemoryStream();
        return newStream;
    }

    public override void ProcessMessage(SoapMessage message)
    {

        switch (message.Stage)
        {
            case SoapMessageStage.BeforeSerialize:
                break;
            case SoapMessageStage.AfterSerialize:
                Log(message, "AfterSerialize");
                    CopyStream(newStream, oldStream);
                    newStream.Position = 0;
                break;
                case SoapMessageStage.BeforeDeserialize:
                    CopyStream(oldStream, newStream);
                    Log(message, "BeforeDeserialize");
                break;
            case SoapMessageStage.AfterDeserialize:
                break;
        }
    }

    public void Log(SoapMessage message, string stage)
    {

        newStream.Position = 0;
        string contents = (message is SoapServerMessage) ? "SoapRequest " : "SoapResponse ";
        contents += stage + ";";

        StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(newStream);

        contents += reader.ReadToEnd();

        newStream.Position = 0;

        log.Debug(contents);
    }

    void ReturnStream()
    {
        CopyAndReverse(newStream, oldStream);
    }

    void ReceiveStream()
    {
        CopyAndReverse(newStream, oldStream);
    }

    public void ReverseIncomingStream()
    {
        ReverseStream(newStream);
    }

    public void ReverseOutgoingStream()
    {
        ReverseStream(newStream);
    }

    public void ReverseStream(Stream stream)
    {
        TextReader tr = new StreamReader(stream);
        string str = tr.ReadToEnd();
        char[] data = str.ToCharArray();
        Array.Reverse(data);
        string strReversed = new string(data);

        TextWriter tw = new StreamWriter(stream);
        stream.Position = 0;
        tw.Write(strReversed);
        tw.Flush();
    }
    void CopyAndReverse(Stream from, Stream to)
    {
        TextReader tr = new StreamReader(from);
        TextWriter tw = new StreamWriter(to);

        string str = tr.ReadToEnd();
        char[] data = str.ToCharArray();
        Array.Reverse(data);
        string strReversed = new string(data);
        tw.Write(strReversed);
        tw.Flush();
    }

    private void CopyStream(Stream fromStream, Stream toStream)
    {
        try
        {
            StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(fromStream);
            StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(toStream);
            sw.WriteLine(sr.ReadToEnd());
            sw.Flush();
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            string message = String.Format("CopyStream failed because: {0}", ex.Message);
            log.Error(message, ex);
        }
    }
}

[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Method)]
public class SoapLoggerExtensionAttribute : SoapExtensionAttribute
{
    private int priority = 1; 

    public override int Priority
    {
        get { return priority; }
        set { priority = value; }
    }

    public override System.Type ExtensionType
    {
        get { return typeof (SoapLoggerExtension); }
    }
}

You then add the following section to your web.config where YourNamespace and YourAssembly point to the class and assembly of your SoapExtension:

<webServices>
  <soapExtensionTypes>
    <add type="YourNamespace.SoapLoggerExtension, YourAssembly" 
       priority="1" group="0" />
  </soapExtensionTypes>
</webServices>

User · Answer

Try Fiddler2 it will let you inspect the requests and response   It might be worth noting that Fiddler works with both http and https traffic

User · Answer

It looks like Tim Carter s solution doesn t work if the call to the web reference throws an exception  I ve been trying to get at the raw web resonse so I can examine it  in code  in the error handler once the exception is thrown  However  I m finding that the response log written by Tim s method is blank when the call throws an exception  I don t completely understand the code  but it appears that Tim s method cuts into the process after the point where  Net has already invalidated and discarded the web response   I m working with a client that s developing a web service manually with low level coding  At this point  they are adding their own internal process error messages as HTML formatted messages into the response BEFORE the SOAP formatted response  Of course  the automagic  Net web reference blows up on this  If I could get at the raw HTTP response after an exception is thrown  I could look for and parse any SOAP response within the mixed returning HTTP response and know that they received my data OK or not   Later      Here s a solution that does work  even after an execption  note that I m only after the response - could get the request too    namespace ChuckBevitt       class GetRawResponseSoapExtension   SoapExtension                 must override these three methods         public override object GetInitializer LogicalMethodInfo methodInfo  SoapExtensionAttribute attribute                        return null                    public override object GetInitializer Type serviceType                        return null                    public override void Initialize object initializer                               private bool IsResponse   false           public override void ProcessMessage SoapMessage message                          Note that ProcessMessage gets called AFTER ChainStream                That s why I m looking for AfterSerialize  rather than BeforeDeserialize             if  message Stage    SoapMessageStage AfterSerialize                  IsResponse   true              else                 IsResponse   false                     public override Stream ChainStream Stream stream                        if  IsResponse                                StreamReader sr   new StreamReader stream                   string response   sr ReadToEnd                    sr Close                    sr Dispose                     File WriteAllText   C  test txt   response                    byte   ResponseBytes   Encoding ASCII GetBytes response                   MemoryStream ms   new MemoryStream ResponseBytes                   return ms                             else                 return stream                      Here s how you configure it in the config file    lt configuration gt              lt system web gt       lt webServices gt         lt soapExtensionTypes gt           lt add type  ChuckBevitt GetRawResponseSoapExtension  TestCallWebService             priority  1  group  0    gt         lt  soapExtensionTypes gt       lt  webServices gt     lt  system web gt   lt  configuration gt     TestCallWebService  shoud be replaced with the name of the library  that happened to be the name of the test console app I was working in    You really shouldn t have to go to ChainStream  you should be able to do it more simply from ProcessMessage as   public override void ProcessMessage SoapMessage message        if  message Stage    SoapMessageStage BeforeDeserialize                StreamReader sr   new StreamReader message Stream           File WriteAllText   C  test txt   sr ReadToEnd             message Stream Position   0    Will blow up  cause type of stream   ConnectStream   doesn t alow seek so can t reset position           If you look up SoapMessage Stream  it s supposed to be a read-only stream that you can use to inspect the data at this point  This is a screw-up  cause if you do read the stream  subsequent processing bombs with no data found errors  stream was at end  and you can t reset the position to the beginning   Interestingly  if you do both methods  the ChainStream and the ProcessMessage ways  the ProcessMessage method will work because you changed the stream type from ConnectStream to MemoryStream in ChainStream  and MemoryStream does allow seek operations   I tried casting the ConnectStream to MemoryStream - wasn t allow    So       Microsoft should either allow seek operations on the ChainStream type or make the SoapMessage Stream truly a read-only copy as it s supposed to be   Write your congressman  etc      One further point  After creating a way to retreive the raw HTTP response after an exception  I still didn t get the full response  as determined by a HTTP sniffer   This was because when the development web service added the HTML error messages to the beginning of the response  it didn t adjust the Content-Length header  so the Content-Length value was less than the size of the actual response body  All I got was the Content-Length value number of characters - the rest were missing  Obviously  when  Net reads the response stream  it just reads the Content-Length number of characters and doesn t allow for the Content-Length value possibily being wrong  This is as it should be  but if the Content-Length header value is wrong  the only way you ll ever get the entire response body is with a HTTP sniffer  I user HTTP Analyzer from http   www ieinspector com

User · Answer

You can implement a SoapExtension that logs the full request and response to a log file. You can then enable the SoapExtension in the web.config, which makes it easy to turn on/off for debugging purposes. Here is an example that I have found and modified for my own use, in my case the logging was done by log4net but you can replace the log methods with your own.

public class SoapLoggerExtension : SoapExtension
{
    private static readonly ILog log = LogManager.GetLogger(MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType);
    private Stream oldStream;
    private Stream newStream;

    public override object GetInitializer(LogicalMethodInfo methodInfo, SoapExtensionAttribute attribute)
    {
        return null;
    }

    public override object GetInitializer(Type serviceType)
    {
        return null;
    }

    public override void Initialize(object initializer)
    {

    }

    public override System.IO.Stream ChainStream(System.IO.Stream stream)
    {
        oldStream = stream;
        newStream = new MemoryStream();
        return newStream;
    }

    public override void ProcessMessage(SoapMessage message)
    {

        switch (message.Stage)
        {
            case SoapMessageStage.BeforeSerialize:
                break;
            case SoapMessageStage.AfterSerialize:
                Log(message, "AfterSerialize");
                    CopyStream(newStream, oldStream);
                    newStream.Position = 0;
                break;
                case SoapMessageStage.BeforeDeserialize:
                    CopyStream(oldStream, newStream);
                    Log(message, "BeforeDeserialize");
                break;
            case SoapMessageStage.AfterDeserialize:
                break;
        }
    }

    public void Log(SoapMessage message, string stage)
    {

        newStream.Position = 0;
        string contents = (message is SoapServerMessage) ? "SoapRequest " : "SoapResponse ";
        contents += stage + ";";

        StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(newStream);

        contents += reader.ReadToEnd();

        newStream.Position = 0;

        log.Debug(contents);
    }

    void ReturnStream()
    {
        CopyAndReverse(newStream, oldStream);
    }

    void ReceiveStream()
    {
        CopyAndReverse(newStream, oldStream);
    }

    public void ReverseIncomingStream()
    {
        ReverseStream(newStream);
    }

    public void ReverseOutgoingStream()
    {
        ReverseStream(newStream);
    }

    public void ReverseStream(Stream stream)
    {
        TextReader tr = new StreamReader(stream);
        string str = tr.ReadToEnd();
        char[] data = str.ToCharArray();
        Array.Reverse(data);
        string strReversed = new string(data);

        TextWriter tw = new StreamWriter(stream);
        stream.Position = 0;
        tw.Write(strReversed);
        tw.Flush();
    }
    void CopyAndReverse(Stream from, Stream to)
    {
        TextReader tr = new StreamReader(from);
        TextWriter tw = new StreamWriter(to);

        string str = tr.ReadToEnd();
        char[] data = str.ToCharArray();
        Array.Reverse(data);
        string strReversed = new string(data);
        tw.Write(strReversed);
        tw.Flush();
    }

    private void CopyStream(Stream fromStream, Stream toStream)
    {
        try
        {
            StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(fromStream);
            StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(toStream);
            sw.WriteLine(sr.ReadToEnd());
            sw.Flush();
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            string message = String.Format("CopyStream failed because: {0}", ex.Message);
            log.Error(message, ex);
        }
    }
}

[AttributeUsage(AttributeTargets.Method)]
public class SoapLoggerExtensionAttribute : SoapExtensionAttribute
{
    private int priority = 1; 

    public override int Priority
    {
        get { return priority; }
        set { priority = value; }
    }

    public override System.Type ExtensionType
    {
        get { return typeof (SoapLoggerExtension); }
    }
}

You then add the following section to your web.config where YourNamespace and YourAssembly point to the class and assembly of your SoapExtension:

<webServices>
  <soapExtensionTypes>
    <add type="YourNamespace.SoapLoggerExtension, YourAssembly" 
       priority="1" group="0" />
  </soapExtensionTypes>
</webServices>

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