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c#asp.netweb-serviceszillow

How to consume an HTTP webservice in Asp.net?


I want to generate html content based on a result returned by http url.

http://www.zillow.com/webservice/GetDeepSearchResults.htm?zws-id=X1-ZWz1c239bjatxn_5taq0&address=2114+Bigelow+Ave&citystatezip=Seattle%2C+WA

This page will give you some XML results. I want to convert to use that XML to generate HTML. I am not getting any idea where to start? Would someone offer any guidelines or sample code for asp.net?

For details: http://www.zillow.com/howto/api/GetDeepSearchResults.htm


Solution

  • To fetch the data you can use the HttpWebRequest class, this is an example I have to hand but it may be slightly overdone for your needs (and you need to make sure you're doing the right thing - I suspect the above to be a GET rather than a POST).

    Uri baseUri = new Uri(this.RemoteServer);
    
    HttpWebRequest rq = (HttpWebRequest)HttpWebRequest.Create(new Uri(baseUri, action));
    rq.Method = "POST";
    rq.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";
    
    rq.Accept = "text/xml";
    rq.AutomaticDecompression = DecompressionMethods.GZip | DecompressionMethods.Deflate;
    
    Encoding encoding = Encoding.GetEncoding("UTF-8");
    byte[] chars = encoding.GetBytes(body);
    rq.ContentLength = chars.Length;
    
    using (Stream stream = rq.GetRequestStream())
    {
        stream.Write(chars, 0, chars.Length);
        stream.Close();
    }
    
    XDocument doc;
    WebResponse rs = rq.GetResponse();
    using (Stream stream = rs.GetResponseStream())
    {
        using (XmlTextReader tr = new XmlTextReader(stream))
        {
            doc = XDocument.Load(tr);
            responseXml = doc.Root;
        }
    
        if (responseXml == null)
        {
            throw new Exception("No response");
        }
     }
    
     return responseXml;
    

    Once you've got the data back you need to render HTML, lots and lots of choices - if you just want to convert what you've got into HTML with minimal further processing then you can use XSLT - which is a question all on its own. If you need to do stuff with it then the question is too vague and you'll need to be more specific.