SoapBits - A .NET Tool to Dynamically Invoke Web Services

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 November 1 2007

          It's been 2 months now since I've made SoapBits available on this blog.  And I'm genuinely surprised that people had stumbled into it!  Google you're the king!!

         Here are some download stats from easy-share.com.  On the average, the tool gets downloaded twice a day.

         I've also received some emails regarding difficulties downloading from easy-share.  This most probaly because of the layout of the easy-share web site.  You need to scroll down a bit to get past the ads until you see the download part.  I know, this s*cks a bit but its still better than hosting it at rapidshare where you have to wait for ages.

   The latest version can be downloaded here :  SoapBits v.1.1.1

October 13 2007 UPDATE - SoapBits v1.1.1 Released!

     This release contains fixes to the following bugs

1. Fails to process web services whose WSDL had included external schemas wherein the schemaLocation is in the URI format. Something like: <xs:include schemaLocation="http://MyCentralRepository/MyExternalTypes.xsd"/>

             Fix: added to code to download the schema into the temp folder where all the other temporay files (wsdl, request and responses) are kept.  This temp folder is deleted when the tool is closed.

      2.   Response Tab fails to display very large soap responses.

             Fix:  Modified the way the http response is read so that the entire response can be displayed.

     3.   Cannot send cookies.

            Fix: Cookies are supported only via the "Send Raw Request" option.  I've added code to make this easier . Please see the modified the documentation (part of the download) on how sending/receiving cookies can be done.

          You can download SoapBits v.1.1.1 here.

Sept 25 2007/UPDATE

            Just got back from vacation and is now working on fixing a bug relating to "included" schemas in the WSDL.  I am also looking into implementing some feature requests. 

             I don't have specific date in mind yet for the new release but I promise I'll get to work on it whenever I'm free.   

            Guys thank you very much for reporting bugs and submitting feature requests.  This will make SoapBits a much better app than I hoped it would be.

Sept 8 2007 /UPDATE - SoapBits v1.1.0 Released

As promised, here's the new release of SoapBits! This release contains the following changes

1. More robust exception handling.  The reported bug(s) on unhandled exceptions are no more.  Plus, I've added a feature that automatically unhides the Logging Pane whenever an exception is written to it.

2. The "Quick Edit" tab Response pane is now synchronized with the current selected method.  Taking this synchronization fix further, I also synchonized the current selected web method with the" Test Data" tab Request and Response sub tabs.  To illustrate, Say you are testing a web service that has 2 web methods, method1 and method 2. If you invoke method1 first, then method2 and then you selected method1 again from the "Web Methods" pane the data that will be shown in the "Test Data" tab will be for method1 even though the last method that was executed was method2.

3.  "Quick Options" now includes  a) Toggling the Logging Pane, b) Viewing the WSDL and c) Viewing the Soap Request Properties

4.  The UI has a bit of an "MS Outlook" feel now. 

5. I've also added a label to display the time!  This is for my fellow devs who frequently forgets to have lunch or dinner! 

6. "Help/About" now contains more info.

Check out the new look!

As always, for any bugs or enhancement requests please let me know.

You can download SoapBits v1.1.0 here

Sept 4, 2007/ UPDATE

        I have received the following comments regarding the tool and i'll be fixing these over the weekend.  Let me know if there are more.

1. Unhandled exception is generated when the URL passed is incorrect.
2. The response output tree should refresh when another web method is selected
3. Add to "Quick Options" a link to the Soap request properties.

Sept 1/ Initial Release

SoapBits is an application used to dynamically invoke any type of web service. The inspiration for this tool is the amazing .NET Web Service Studio tool written by Sowmys of Microsoft at GotDotNet. That tool has been a great help to me.

* Test Data Tab

QuickStart Guide.

 

 * Invoking a web service by using the "Raw Soap mesage" option

 You can download SoapBits here.  Try it out and let me know how it goes!