Prevent XML re-formatting in WAS response in SAP Windows Activation Service

No, there is no other possibility of preventing XML re-formatting in Windows Activation Service (WAS) response until you code everything on your own. It seems to be an issue during de-serialization.

Most probably it is relevant to the parameters that you are sending in the response. The WAS response mechanism automatically formats XML content based on its internal serialization process.

Understanding the Issue

When SAP Windows Activation Service processes XML responses, it applies default formatting rules during the de-serialization process. This automatic formatting can alter your original XML structure, whitespace, and indentation.

Troubleshooting Steps

You can try and enable tracing to detect further issues and check out where the formatting is going wrong. Here's how to enable tracing −

<system.diagnostics>
    <trace autoflush="true">
        <listeners>
            <add name="textWriterTraceListener" 
                 type="System.Diagnostics.TextWriterTraceListener" 
                 initializeData="trace.log" />
        </listeners>
    </trace>
</system.diagnostics>

Custom Serialization Approach

If you need to preserve exact XML formatting, you'll need to implement custom serialization −

[XmlRoot("Response")]
public class CustomResponse
{
    [XmlElement("Data")]
    public XmlCDataSection RawXmlData { get; set; }
    
    public void PreserveFormatting(string xmlContent)
    {
        XmlDocument doc = new XmlDocument();
        this.RawXmlData = doc.CreateCDataSection(xmlContent);
    }
}

This approach wraps your XML content in CDATA sections to prevent automatic formatting by the WAS response handler.

While there's no built-in solution to prevent XML re-formatting in WAS responses, custom serialization with CDATA sections or manual XML handling provides the most reliable workaround for preserving your original XML structure.