Compress a HttpWebRequest using gzip

Question

I am developing a .NET 4.0 Console Application to serve as a SOAP Web Service client which will send data (POST) through to a third-party. I have no c

Answer 1

I think I was able to solve the compression error message by adding the following to the HttpWebRequest method:

request.Headers.Add(HttpRequestHeader.ContentEncoding, "gzip"); 

Updated Method to create the HttpWebRequest:

private static HttpWebRequest CreateWebRequest(SoapAction action)
{
    string url = GetUrlAddress(action);

    HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(url);

    request.Headers.Add(HttpRequestHeader.AcceptEncoding, "gzip, deflate");
    request.Headers.Add(HttpRequestHeader.ContentEncoding, "gzip"); 
    request.Headers.Add("SOAPAction", action.ToString());
    request.ContentType = "application/xop+xml";
    request.Accept = "text/xml";
    request.Method = "POST";

    request.ClientCertificates.Add(/* Retrieve X509Certificate Object*/);

    return request;
}

Answer 2

Use the following in place of your current code to send the request.

using (Stream stream = request.GetRequestStream())
using (GZipStream gz = new GZipStream(stream, CompressionMode.Compress, false))
{
    soapXml.Save(gz);
}

Edit: Might need to use "new GZipStream(stream, CompressionMode.Compress, true)". Can't say for certain how that constructor parameter will affect the web request stream.