Using a Web Service - Page 1

In my earlier tutorial, you learned how to create a web service. Creating a web service is often just one part of the solution. You will need a way of accessing the web service and be able to retrieve useful data from it. In this tutorial I will explain how to create a simple ASP.NET page that, given an input, returns the appropriate data from an existing web service.

This tutorial is really divided into two parts. The first part outlines how to design your page to take user input and display the results, and the second part outlines the code needed to make the first part work. If you are just interested in finding out how to connect to a web service and the code needed to invoke it, feel free to skip the first part and proceed directly to the second part.

Note

If all you want to do is find out how to insert a web service and the code needed to invoke it, visit the second part of this tutorial. The first part goes over the UI needed to simulate a real application that would use a web service.

Here is a demo of what you will create: http://www.kirupafx.com/MovieInfo/Default.aspx

First Part - Setting up our Form
The following steps will guide you in setting up your project and form for sending and receiving data to our web service.

1. Open your .NET web site by going to File | Open | Web Site. After entering your credentials, if necessary, your Solution Explorer panel will now display the file/folder structure of your site.

2. Let's create a new folder to store our files for this project. In the Solution Explorer, right click on your newly created Project and select New Folder. Give your new folder the name MovieInfo:

[ create a new folder and name it MovieInfo ]

3. Right click on your newly created MovieInfo folder and select Add New Item. The Add New Item window will appear, and select the Web Form template. At the bottom of the window, ensure Default.aspx is entered for the Name, the language is set to Visual C#, and the Place code in separate file checkbox is checked:

4. With your new file created, double click on Default.aspx to open it for editing. Click on the Design tab to switch to the WYSIWYG editor:

5. Now we are in the design view. First, draw a Lablel object, set its font size to 36, set its font color to any shade of blue, set the label's content to Top Movies Info, and set the ID to lblHeader.
   
   Your label should look like the following image after the above changes have been made:

There is more of the interface that needs to be developed, and we have not even reached Part II yet!

Onwards to the next page!

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