How do I post XML to RESTFUL Web Service using Net::HTTP::Post?

Question

I am having trouble getting this to work so any help would be appreciated! Basically, the request.body contains valid XML for the Web Service like so:

<somedata>
<name>Test Name 1</name>
<description>Some data for Unit testing</description>
</somedata>

...but the service returns empty XML. Note that the id field is returned suggesting that it does actually hit the database, but the name and description fields are nil:

<somedata>
<id type='integer'>1</id>
<name nil='true'></name>
<description nil='true'></description>
</somedata>

I have manually tested the RESTFUL service using Poster and it works fine.

Here is the code:

url = URI.parse('http://localhost:3000/someservice/')
request = Net::HTTP::Post.new(url.path)
request.body = "<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><somedata><name>Test Name 1</name><description>Some data for Unit testing</description></somedata>"
response = Net::HTTP.start(url.host, url.port) {|http| http.request(request)}

#Note this test PASSES!
assert_equal '201 Created', response.get_fields('Status')[0]

Does anyone have any clues why the data in the XML post is not persisted?

Answer 1

Without knowing anything about the service, this is just a guess, but… is the service expecting a specific header that Poster is setting and you aren't?