RE: Success HttpApi on V4R3

[Scott Klement <klemscot@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Sender: Scott Klement <klemscot@xxxxxxxxxxxx>


Art,

If you want to put the contents of your XML file into an HTML form
variable called 'varPayload', there's more to it than simply putting
'varPayload=' in front of the data.

You need to 'encode' that data so that it would be a valid URL.  What
they refer to as 'www-form-urlencoded' data.   Doing it that way would
make it look like it was something you typed into a form on a web page
and sent.  (Which isn't the same as sending it directly to a web server,
unfortunately... sigh)

In order to make your data be URL encoded, your XML data will need:

   1) The following characters are used as delimiters or special
         characters in a URL, and so must be escaped:
                   ; / ? : @ & = + $ , % < > # "

       To escape these characters, you send a % HEX HEX sequence.
       For example, %26 would be the escape sequence for a & character
       because 26 is the ASCII hex value for &, and % denotes that
       you are inserting an escape sequence.

   2) Spaces must also be escaped, but you can do that simply by
      translating all spaces to the + symbol.

   3) Although it's not strictly required, I'd strongly recommend also
      escaping CR and LF with %0A and %0D respectively.

Once you've escaped that data, you can add the varPayload= to the
front of it.  You don't escape that...  in fact, the reason you escape
the '=' symbol is so that you can differentiate between variables and
their values, yet still allow '=' to be part of the value.

Most web forms also have a submit-button at the bottom.  So if that's
also required, you'd have to add a string like  '&Submit=value' to the
end of your data.

The '&' symbol signifies a new variable (thats why it's escaped as well)
the name & value correspond to the HTML form.  If it says
<input type="submit" name="LetsGo" value="Chunky Monkey"> then you'd
add the string &LetsGo=Chunky+Monkey to the end of your data to indicate
the submit button :)

Keep in mind that this isn't, strictly speaking, part of the POST
operation.  It's just the way web forms are submitted to HTTP servers,
not the way 'any' data is submitted to HTTP servers...

Have fun :)


On Wed, 30 Oct 2002, Art Tostaine, Jr. wrote:
>
> Scott:
>
> Thanks for the ideas.  I will probably try to hijack the API's.
>
> The Post is supposed to call a "program" called Populate on their system, and I am supposed to invoke method "varPayload"
>
> They want me to send this URL:
>
> http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx/Integration/Integration.asmx/Populate
>
> and I have this in my STMF:
>
> "varPayload=<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
> <RouteRequest xmlns="http://206.188.52.206/Integration/RoutePopulateRequest.xsd";>
>  <Partner>
>   <CustomerID>Gilbert</CustomerID>
>   <CustomerUID>Art</CustomerUID>
>   <CustomerPWD>Art</CustomerPWD>
>   <Version>1.0</Version>
>   <Type>GIS</Type>
>   <Source>Gilbert</Source>
>
> etc, etc, etc.

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