IIS, ASP.NET - Allowing HTTP POST | Tech Off

SlackmasterK
I write my OWN blogging engines

I have a code-behind that looks like this:

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) {
System.IO.StreamReader reader = new System.IO.StreamReader(Request.InputStream);
String xmlData = reader.ReadToEnd();
Response.ContentType = "text/xml";
Response.Write("Pinging back: " + xmlData);
Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8;
Response.Flush();
Response.End();
Response.Close();
Response.Write("This should not be sent"); }

It works locally, but when I put it on an IIS Server, all incoming calls return a 405: Method Not Allowed. How do I configure this application or IIS to allow HTTP POSTs?

It's just an asp.net project; not a web service.

figuerres
???

how is this called?

what do you mean when you say "it works locally" ? do you mean the VS developer web server? local IIS on XP? Vista?

how are you calling the page / how is it "posted" to ?

the server, is it one you can look at - how is it configured?

SlackmasterK
I write my OWN blogging engines

In reply to figuerres

#Jul 2nd @ 3:20 PM

I'm trying to develop a Pingback Server. The specification requires a method name "pingback.ping" and I couldn't figure out how to get a period into the method name so I didn't use a web service.

It will be called via an HTTP POST that conforms to the XML-RPC Specification. Since I couldn't get it to work as a web service I figured I could just read the whole thing in from the request as a normal web page; then parse the XML.

I've tried hosting it within VS 2008, IIS7 (Vista) and IIS6 (Server 2003). It worked once, on my local IIS7 (Vista), and once on the IIS6 box.

The page is being called by this code in another project (Which I've confirmed does work, despite lack of elegance)

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e) {
string strPost = MV4.Interop.HTTP.CreateXmlRpcPostString("http://Source.example.com", http://target.example.com);
string PingbackServer = "http://kcws/pingback";
string strResp = MV4.Interop.HTTP.PostURL(PingbackServer, strPost);
Response.Write(strResp); }

public static string PostURL(string url, string e) {
// Inits
url = url.ToLower().Trim();
if (url == null || (!url.StartsWith("http://") && !url.StartsWith("https://"))) return null;
if (e == null) e = "";
string ReturnStr = "";
System.IO.StreamWriter myWriter;
System.Net.HttpWebRequest objRequest = (System.Net.HttpWebRequest)System.Net.WebRequest.Create(url);
objRequest.Method = "POST";
objRequest.ContentLength = e.Length;
objRequest.ContentType = "text/xml";
objRequest.KeepAlive = false;
objRequest.UserAgent = "ZI255 BattleBot";
myWriter = new System.IO.StreamWriter(objRequest.GetRequestStream());

try { myWriter.Write(e); }
catch (Exception ex) { return ex.ToString(); }
finally { myWriter.Close(); }

System.Net.HttpWebResponse objResponse;
System.IO.StreamReader sr = null;

try {
objResponse = (System.Net.HttpWebResponse)objRequest.GetResponse();
sr = new System.IO.StreamReader(objResponse.GetResponseStream()); }
catch (Exception ex) {
if (ex.ToString().Contains("(405) Method Not Allowed.")) return "Error: Server does not support this method."; }

ReturnStr = sr.ReadToEnd();
sr.Close();
myWriter.Close();
return ReturnStr; }

public static string CreateXmlRpcPostString(string SourceURI, string TargetURI) {
return "<?xml version=\"1.0\"?>\r\n" +
"<methodCall>\r\n" +
" <methodName>ping.pingback</methodName>\r\n" +
" <params>\r\n" +
" <param>\r\n" +
" <value><string>" + SourceURI + "</string></value>\r\n" +
" </param>\r\n" +
" <param>\r\n" +
" <value><string>" + TargetURI + "</string></value>\r\n" +
" </param>\r\n" +
" </params>\r\n" +
"</methodCall>"; }

The server is upstairs; it's configured pretty much to default settings (on that virtual folder). It's also hosting my blogs, but those don't need POSTs Smiley

SlackmasterK
I write my OWN blogging engines

OK, I got it. I had it setup in an IIS Virtual Directory; once I moved it to its own website on port 82, it worked fine. Freaky; it has the same rules and permissions as the site it was on before. Thanks.

tgraupmann648

How could you write to the response after it has been closed? You should get an error or exception if you try.

SlackmasterK
I write my OWN blogging engines

In reply to tgraupmann648

#Jul 6th @ 4:40 PM

I didn't get an Exception when this line executed. My guess is that it wrote the string to the Response object; but since it was closed it had no work to do.

Matthew van Eerde
AKA Maurits

If memory serves me correcly IIS disallows POSTing to a "default" document via directory name. That is to say, "POST /foo/default.aspx HTTP/1.1" works, but "POST /foo/ HTTP/1.1" does not.

SlackmasterK
I write my OWN blogging engines

In reply to Matthew van Eerde

#Jul 8th @ 1:59 PM

Dunno what to say. http://foo/pingback didn't work; but http://foo:82 did.

Matthew van Eerde
AKA Maurits

In reply to SlackmasterK

#Jul 8th @ 3:11 PM

Interesting. If you don't mind, could you also try the following?

http://foo/pingback/ (note the trailing slash)
http://foo/pingback/default.aspx (or whatever your default document is)
http://foo:82/
http://foo:82/default.aspx (or whatever your default document is)

Out of the hazy mists of time I am getting the theory that IIS6 might have (partially?) fixed the default document POST problem.

(disclaimer: I don't work on the IIS team)