How to pass XML as POST to an ActionResult in ASP MVC .NET

@Freddy - liked your approach and improved on it with the following code to simplify stream reading:

    public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)    {        HttpContextBase httpContext = filterContext.HttpContext;        if (!httpContext.IsPostNotification)        {            throw new InvalidOperationException("Only POST messages allowed on this resource");        }        Stream httpBodyStream = httpContext.Request.InputStream;        if (httpBodyStream.Length > int.MaxValue)        {            throw new ArgumentException("HTTP InputStream too large.");        }        StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(httpBodyStream, Encoding.UTF8);        string xmlBody = reader.ReadToEnd();        reader.Close();        filterContext.ActionParameters["message"] = xmlBody;        // Sends XML Data To Model so it could be available on the ActionResult        base.OnActionExecuting(filterContext);    }

Then in the Controller you can access the xml as a string:

[RestAPIAttribute]    public ActionResult MyActionResult(string message)    {         }

This could be accomplished by using the ActionFilterAttribute. Action Filters basically intersects the request before or after the Action Result. So I just built a custom action filter attribute for POST Action Result. Here is what I did:

public class RestAPIAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute{    public override void OnActionExecuting(ActionExecutingContext filterContext)    {        HttpContextBase httpContext = filterContext.HttpContext;        if (!httpContext.IsPostNotification)        {            throw new InvalidOperationException("Only POST messages allowed on this resource");        }        Stream httpBodyStream = httpContext.Request.InputStream;        if (httpBodyStream.Length > int.MaxValue)        {            throw new ArgumentException("HTTP InputStream too large.");        }        int streamLength = Convert.ToInt32(httpBodyStream.Length);        byte[] byteArray = new byte[streamLength];        const int startAt = 0;        /*         * Copies the stream into a byte array         */        httpBodyStream.Read(byteArray, startAt, streamLength);        /*         * Convert the byte array into a string         */        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();        for (int i = 0; i < streamLength; i++)        {            sb.Append(Convert.ToChar(byteArray[i]));        }        string xmlBody = sb.ToString();        //Sends XML Data To Model so it could be available on the ActionResult        base.OnActionExecuting(filterContext);    }}

Then on the action result method on your controller you should do something like this:

    [RestAPIAttribute]    public ActionResult MyActionResult()    {        //Gets XML Data From Model and do whatever you want to do with it    }

Hope this helps somebody else, if you think there are more elegant ways to do it, let me know.

Why can they not pass the xml as a string in the form post?

Example:

public ActionResult SendMeXml(string xml){  //Parse into a XDocument or something else if you want, and return whatever you want.  XDocument xmlDocument = XDocument.Parse(xml);  return View();}

You could create a form post and send it in a single form field.