.NET Web Services Made Easy

addQuote() WebMethod

Now we can return the quotes, we're going to build the functionality to allow someone to add a quote:

<WebMethod(Description:="Allows anyone    
to add a quote to the database" _    
 & "<br />Takes 3 inputs" _    
 & "<br /><strong>1. quoteConent</strong> - Content    
 of the quote" _    
 & "<br /><strong>2. submittedBy</strong> - Name of the    
 person who submitted the quote (50 chars)" _    
 & "<br /><strong>3. webSite</strong> - Web Site of the    
 person who submitted the quote (50 chars)" _    
 & "<br /><br />Returns true or false depending if    
 the quote was successfully added")> _    
   Public Function addQuote(quoteContent As String,    
   submittedBy As String, webSite As String) As Boolean    
   Dim objConnection As New SQLConnection(strConnection)    
   Dim objCmd As SQLCommand    
   Dim objParam As SQLParameter    
       
   Try    
     objCmd = New SQLCommand("INSERT INTO tblQuotes    
     (displayContent, submittedBy, webSite) VALUES    
     (@displayContent, @submittedBy, @webSite)", objConnection)    
         
     objParam = objCmd.Parameters.Add(New SQLParameter    
     ("@displayContent", SQLDBType.Text))    
     objParam.Value = quoteContent    
         
     objParam = objCmd.Parameters.Add(New SQLParameter    
     ("@submittedBy", SQLDBType.VarChar, 50))    
     objParam.Value = submittedBy    
         
     objParam = objCmd.Parameters.Add(New SQLParameter    
     ("@webSite", SQLDBType.VarChar, 50))    
     objParam.Value = webSite    
         
       objCmd.Connection.Open()    
       objCmd.ExecuteNonQuery()    
       objCmd.Connection.Close    
         
     Return True    
   Catch ex As Exception    
     Return False    
   End Try    
 End Function

If you've ever used ASP.NET, the above code should be very familiar (so should everything else really!). The first thing we do, as you already know, is declare the WebMethod. But this time you'll notice that the description is longer. As you can see, it supports HTML, which means that you can supply a detailed description with your Web Service! We take three inputs, quoteContent, submittedBy and website) and return a Boolean (True or False).

<WebMethod(Description:="Allows anyone to    
add a quote to the database" _    
 & "<br />Takes 3 inputs" _    
 & "<br /><strong>1. quoteConent</strong> - Content of the quote" _    
 & "<br /><strong>2. submittedBy</strong> -    
 Name of the person who submitted the quote (50 chars)" _    
 & "<br /><strong>3. webSite</strong> - Web Site    
 of the person who submitted the quote (50 chars)" _    
 & "<br /><br />Returns true or false depending if    
 the quote was successfully added")> _    
 Public Function addQuote(quoteContent As String,    
 submittedBy As String, webSite As String) As Boolean

Next, we declare all the objects we're going to use:

Dim objConnection As New SQLConnection(strConnection)    
Dim objCmd As SQLCommand    
Dim objParam As SQLParameter

Then we insert the data supplied into the database using a Try…Catch…Finally block. As you can see, we do not validate of the data, which means the client would have to.

 Try    
     objCmd = New SQLCommand("INSERT INTO tblQuotes    
     (displayContent, submittedBy, webSite) VALUES    
     (@displayContent, @submittedBy, @webSite)", objConnection)    
         
     objParam = objCmd.Parameters.Add(New SQLParameter    
     ("@displayContent", SQLDBType.Text))    
     objParam.Value = quoteContent    
         
     objParam = objCmd.Parameters.Add(New SQLParameter    
     ("@submittedBy", SQLDBType.VarChar, 50))    
     objParam.Value = submittedBy    
         
     objParam = objCmd.Parameters.Add(New SQLParameter("@webSite",    
     SQLDBType.VarChar, 50))    
     objParam.Value = webSite    
         
     objCmd.Connection.Open()    
     objCmd.ExecuteNonQuery()    
     objCmd.Connection.Close    
         
     Return True    
   Catch ex As Exception    
     Return False    
 End Try

It's as simple as that! If we surf along to our quote.asmx file now, we'll see something like this:

Why not try the Web Services we created? They're both fully functional!