How to understand what XML to send to an ASMX web

Question

I am trying to consume some .asmx service in a console application (I will later use the code to make a dll and use it somewhere else).

But I don't know what the schema of the web service is. I just know the URL of the service which on navigating using the browser gives a page which enlists the functions of the web service. On clicking on a function I get a page with this written under the heading

SOAP 1.1:

The following is a sample SOAP 1.1 request and response. The placeholders shown need to be replaced with actual values.

And after this there is some XML with tags like <soap:Envelope>, <soap:body> etc. But I can't use those XMLs...

How do I understand the XML required for a call having only this info?

Answer 1

You need to look for the "Service Description" link in that page.

ASP.NET generates those pages to allow you to test the service. In the pages there is a link to the WSDL of the web service (normally the endpoint address with ?wsdl appended to it).

The WSDL is all you need to generate a client to interact with the web service. Feed that to a tool like svcutil and you get back client code and configuration.