Can I have an optional parameter for an ASP.NET SOAP web service

Question

I want to build a webservice with this signature, which does not throw an exception if param2 is left empty. Is this possible?

[WebMethod]
public string HelloWorld(string param1, bool param2) { }

The exception is a System.ArgumentException that is thrown when trying to convert the empty string to boolean.

Ideas that have not worked so far:

• method overloading is not allowed for webservices, like

  public string HelloWorld(string param1)
  {
      return HelloWorld(param1, false);
  }
  

as suggested here:

• make bool nullable bool?. Same exception.
• manipulate the WSDL, see this answer

My question is related to this question, but the only answer points to WCF contracts, which I have not used yet.

Answer 1

If you REALLY have to accomplish this, here's a sort of hack for the specific case of a web method that has only primitive types as parameters:

[WebMethod]
public void MyMethod(double requiredParam1, int requiredParam2)
{
    // Grab an optional param from the request.
    string optionalParam1 = this.Context.Request["optionalParam1"];

    // Grab another optional param from the request, this time a double.
    double optionalParam2;
    double.TryParse(this.Context.Request["optionalParam2"], out optionalParam2);
    ...
}

Answer 2

You can have a Overloaded Method in webservices with MessageName attribute. This is a workaround to achieve the overloading functionality.

Look at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/byxd99hx%28VS.71%29.aspx

[WebMethod(MessageName="Add3")]
public double Add(double dValueOne, double dValueTwo, double dValueThree)
{
   return dValueOne + dValueTwo + dValueThree;
}

[WebMethod(MessageName="Add2")]
public int Add(double dValueOne, double dValueTwo)
{
   return dValueOne + dValueTwo;
}

The methods will be made visible as Add2 and Add3to the outside.