Trying to get a JQuery Post to communicate with WCF, but the JSON data is not being accepted

Question

I am using the following JQuery\JavaScript code to communicate with a WCF 4 REST service.

<script>
var serviceUrl = "http://services.xiine.com/Xiine/Live/AccountService/rest/json/Login";
var userInfo = {
    "IsNotEncrypted":true,
    "Password":null,
    "UserName":null
};

var loginSuccess = function(data, textStatus, jqXHR){
console.log("yay");
};
var loginError = function(){
console.log("oh no");
};

$.post(serviceUrl , userInfo, loginSuccess);
$.post(serviceUrl , loginSuccess);

</script>

I am trying to establish why it is that the service will correctly return a false value when I do not pass the user data:

$.post(serviceUrl , loginSuccess);

As opposed to when I do pass user data, at which point it gives a POST 400 (Bad Request) error.

$.post(serviceUrl , userInfo, loginSuccess);

I am sure it has to do with how the JSON object, userInfo, is being built or interpreted, and I can post Fiddler 2 or WireShark dumps, if that will help. Just let me know...

I don't really have access to changing the WCF side of the service, so hopefully there is something I can do on my end to make this work.

Thanks!

Edit

I got a little more information... Apparently, the problem is that the server is responding with the following error:

The server encountered an error processing the request. The exception message is 'The incoming message >has an unexpected message format 'Raw'. The expected message formats for the operation are 'Xml', >'Json'. This can be because a WebContentTypeMapper has not been configured on the binding. See the >documentation of WebContentTypeMapper for more details.'. See server logs for more details. The >exception stack trace is:

at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.DemultiplexingDispatchMessageFormatter.DeserializeRequest(Message message, Object[] parameters) at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.UriTemplateDispatchFormatter.DeserializeRequest(Message message, Object[] parameters) at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.CompositeDispatchFormatter.DeserializeRequest(Message message, Object[] parameters) at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.DispatchOperationRuntime.DeserializeInputs(MessageRpc& rpc) at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.DispatchOperationRuntime.InvokeBegin(MessageRpc& rpc) at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.ImmutableDispatchRuntime.ProcessMessage5(MessageRpc& rpc) at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.ImmutableDispatchRuntime.ProcessMessage41(MessageRpc& rpc) at System.ServiceModel.Dispatcher.MessageRpc.Process(Boolean isOperationContextSet)

So I am thinking I need to figure out how to get the object to go across the wire as a JSON object via a JQuery.post() method.

More information --- Again...

ok... There is no app.config or web.config, as such.

Here is what I can get as far as the contracts and code and what-not.

[ServiceContract]
public interface IAccount
{
[OperationContract]
bool Login(UserInformation user);
}

[ServiceBehavior(IncludeExceptionDetailInFaults = true)]
[AspNetCompatibilityRequirements(RequirementsMode = AspNetCompatibilityRequirementsMode.Allowed)]
public class AccountService : IAccount
{
public bool Login(UserInformation user)
{
    //stuff...
}
}

[DataContract]
public class UserInformation
{
[DataMember(IsRequired = true)]
public string UserName;

[DataMember(IsRequired = true)]
public string Password;

[DataMember(IsRequired = true)]
public bool IsNotEncrypted;
}

public interface IUserInformation
{
UserInformation UserInformation { get; set; }
}

Answer 1

So, I found the answer to my question.

Someone attempted to point me in the right direction with a mention of the JSON.stringify() method, but it took me a little effort to get it implemented correctly.

In the end, I used WireShark to sniff out the http request, see what was actually being sent and received, and observe that not only did I need to stingify the data, but I also needed to specify the content type.

Here is the final code.

// This is the URL that is used for the service.
var serviceUrl = "http://services.xiine.com/Xiine/Live/AccountService/rest/json/Login";


// This is the JSON object passed to the service
var userInfo = {
    "UserName": null,
    "Password": null,
    "IsNotEncrypted": true
};

// $.ajax is the longhand ajax call in JQuery
$.ajax({
    type: "POST",
    url: serviceUrl,
    contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",

    // Stringify the userInfo to send a string representation of the JSON Object
    data: JSON.stringify(userInfo),
    dataType: "json",
    success: function(msg) {
        console.log(msg);
        }});

Answer 2

in the interface for your service, you need to have the OperationalContract attribute and in that attribute, you need to set the RequestFormat. Here is an example of what it might look like.

[OperationContract, WebInvoke(UriTemplate = "/runGenericMethodJSON", Method = "POST",
        RequestFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json,
        ResponseFormat = WebMessageFormat.Json,
        BodyStyle = WebMessageBodyStyle.WrappedRequest)]