How Data is posted (POST) to Service in Servicestack , is it through URL? - asp.net-mvc

Question

I have complex requstDto which composed of other list of DTO's (Entity framework Entities) like
[Route("/demoservice/{Userdemo}/{EmployerDemoid}/{ReportDemo}/{DemoselectedDataList}/", "POST")]
public class ReportDemo : IReturn<String>
{
public List<selectedidList> selectedDataList{ get; set; }
}
where UserReport is follows
public class UserReport
{
public string UserName { get; set; }
public Datetime CreatedON{ get; set; }
}
when i try to post to request it gives me following error
A potentially dangerous Request.Path value was detected from the client (:)
i think it gives error due to : in CreatedON field ( for time part).
is the post values are also sent through URL to ServiceStack URL ? if yes
1) what if we have very large and complex requestDTO resulting into large number of characters (greater than allowed )in URL?
2) how to make above scenario work as ":" is reserved and cant be sent through URL?
3) How to see request URL Generated from client ?
My Client code in MVC.net is
var client = new JsonServiceClient(ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["applicationUrl"])
{
//for windows authentication
Credentials = CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials
};
var result = client.Post (new ReportDemo
{
UserName = model.UserName,
EmployerID = model.EmployerID,
Report = model.Report,
selectedDataList =userReportViewModel.selectedDataList
});
Thanks in advance,
Amol

Answer 1

Only the /path/info of the Url should be specified in the [Route]. Ideally routes should use a human-readable logically-structured Url that refers to a "Resource" (noun). See the SeviceStack REST Events Example for different examples.
Routes should also never include complex types and any variable that isn't on the [Route] is automatically sent in the HTTP Request Body for POST requests or the QueryString from GET Requests.
For a User Report like this I would choose a URL that identifies the report, if the report has a name like "Demo Report" I would use a path info like:
[Route("/reports/demo")]
public class ReportDemo : IReturn<String> { ... }
Otherwise if this is a Report for Users you may instead want to use something like:
[Route("/users/{UserName}/reports/demo")]
public class ReportDemo : IReturn<String> { ... }
You can check what url is used by using the Reverse Routing Extension methods, e.g:
var request = ReportDemo { UserName = "Foo", ... };
request.ToPostUrl().Print(); //= /users/Foo/reports/demo
Now you can send your Request with any property not in the Route getting POST'ed to the above url, e.g:
string result = client.Post (new ReportDemo {
UserName = userReportViewModel.UserName,
EmployerID = userReportViewModel.EmployerID,
Report = userReportViewModel.Report,
selectedDataList =userReportViewModel.selectedDataList
});
If your Report does return a string you can use IReturn<string> however if it returns a Response DTO you'll want to use that instead, e.g IReturn<ReportDemoResponse>.