"Input string was not in correct format"

sbolster[CodePlex]
Proposed by RussNelson. From HydroServer Issue tracker.

I'm using mysql 5.5 and WaterOneFlow Web Services (whatever the current version is). I have a database populated with my Sites, Sources, and Variables (and SeriesCatalog's), but no DataValues yet. When I try to access it using HydroDesktop 1.5.12.9, as soon
as I click on Get Metadata, I see 12 POSTs in my Apache logs, and an error from HydroDesktop saying quotDownload complete. 0 series saved to metadata cache database.

Some errors occurred during the operation:

Could not get site info for 12 sites in service with URL:http://w.ra-tes.org/cuahsi_1_1.php

Input string was not in a correct format.quot

Besides, of course, whatever problem I'm having, there's also the problem of the unhelpful error message. What was HydroDesktop trying to do? What input string did it see? What format is correct? Given that it's probably my error, this violates the Prime Directive
of bug reporting to answer the three questions: quotWhat did you do, what did you see, what did you expect to see?quot

I don't know if this is a HydroDesktop problem or a WaterOneFlow problem, but could somebody help me diagnose this problem, AND also fix the error message?

Reproduce the HydroDesktop 1.5.12.9 Get Metadata request against the WaterOneFlow service at http://w.ra-tes.org/cuahsi_1_1.php, using the MySQL 5.5 data setup described. Start with the 12 POSTs in the Apache logs and identify the input that triggers the format error. Done means the failing input and expected format are identified and the error message explains them clearly.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.