Programming Visual Basic .NET

Testing a Web Service with a Browser

Web services deployed on ASP.NET can easily be tested with a web browser, because the ASP.NET framework itself includes the ability to generate browser screens based on the definition of the web service. For example, browsing to the .asmx file shown in Example 7-1 (using the URL http://localhost/WebServices/HelloWebService.asmx) produces the browser screen shown in Figure 7-1.

Figure 7-1. Browsing to a web service hosted in ASP.NET

To test a web service in a web browser, the .asmx file must be deployed in an IIS virtual directory. Using the browser to view the .asmx file directly from disk doesn’t work.

The “HelloWebService” in large font in Figure 7-1 is the name of the web service exposed at the given URL. This is the name of the implementation class (or the value given by the Name parameter of the WebService attribute, if present). Underneath the main heading there are two additional links. The first, marked “Service Description”, links to the WSDL description of the service. (Web-service descriptions and WSDL are explained in the next section.)

The second, at the bottom of the test window, is the list of web methods exposed by the web service. In the case of HelloWebService, there is only a single method, SayHello. Clicking on the name of the method brings up a screen with information about that method and with a mechanism for testing it. ...