Need help converting my RestSharp code to use HttpClient instead - c#

Due to the fact that I need to convert this C# dll into a tlp file to be called from Visual Basic 6, I need avoid using external dependencies. I have used RestSharp to consume a WebAPI by doing the following (working):
using RestSharp;
using Newtonsoft.Json;
..
public string GetToken (string Key, string Password) {
var client = new RestClient (BaseUrl + "auth/GetToken");
var request = new RestRequest (Method.POST);
request.AddHeader ("cache-control", "no-cache");
request.AddHeader ("Content-Type", "application/json");
Dictionary<string, string> data = new Dictionary<string, string> {
{ "APIKey", Key },
{ "APIPassword", Password }
};
var dataJSON = JsonConvert.SerializeObject (data);
request.AddParameter ("undefined", dataJSON, ParameterType.RequestBody);
IRestResponse response = client.Execute (request);
GetTokenResults g = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<GetTokenResults> (response.Content);
return g.Token;
}
where GetTokenResults was a struct that contained a declaration for the string Token. I want to achieve this same functionality without using RestSharp. Here is my unsuccessful attempt:
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Net.Http.Headers;
..
public async void GetToken (string Key, string Password) {
var client = new HttpClient ( );
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Clear ( );
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue ("application/json"));
client.BaseAddress = new Uri (BaseUrl + "auth/GetToken");
Dictionary<string, string> data = new Dictionary<string, string> {
{ "APIKey", Key },
{ "APIPassword", Password }
};
var dataJSON = JsonConvert.SerializeObject (data);
var content = new StringContent (dataJSON, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");
var response = await client.PostAsync ("", content);
}
I am unclear on how to achieve the same results (send API key and password, return token as string) using HttpClient as I did using RestSharp earlier. Anything that can point me in the right direction is greatly appreciated!


I think you got stung by this issue. In short, the URI in client.BaseAddress needs a slash at the end of it.
However, I wouldn't simply add it, I'd consider doing it a little different. Presumably your BaseUrl already has a trailing slash, given you're appending "auth/GetToken" to it. I'd do it this way:
client.BaseAddress = new Uri(BaseUrl);
...
var response = await client.PostAsync("auth/GetToken", content);
As you can see, HttpClient fits very cleanly with how your code is already set up, i.e. you have a "base" address with a trailing slash and you want to append to it for a specific call.
That should get you un-stuck to this point. The next thing you'll need to tackle is deserializing the JSON response so you can get the token out of it. It's similar to how you did it in RestSharp, except that response.Content is not a string in the HttpClient world, so you need one more step to get that:
var json = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
GetTokenResults g = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<GetTokenResults>(json);
return g.Token;
Last thing you'll need to do to get this to compile is change the method signature to:
public async Task<string> GetTokenAsync
One final note: you are now in the async world, and that's a good thing, but you need to know how to use it correctly or you could end up with deadlocks and other mysterious bugs. In short, don't block on async code by calling .Result or .Wait() anywhere up the call stack. That's by far most common mistake people make. Use async/await all the way down.


I think you are missing first parameter in the method PostAsync i.e. requestUri=Client.BaseAddress (see my implementation below).
Try with this first, if did not work, read below. I have a little different implementation where I passed client.BaseAddress as first parameter and I am passing my content as ByteArrayContent. In my case I have to pass my content as "application/x-www-form-urlencoded" excerpt of my code:
var buffer = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(content);
var byteContent = new ByteArrayContent(buffer);
//as I can't send JSON, probably, you can skip as it's already JSON
byteContent.Headers.ContentType = new System.Net.Http.Headers.MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
//requestUri=client.BaseAddress
await client.PostAsync(requestUri, byteContent).ConfigureAwait(false);
We have somewhat different need but I think you are pretty close. If it does not help, write me I will share my code. After reading the comment, I would like to share how I have made my HttpClient. The code is as it is:
using (var client = CreateMailClientForPOST($"{BaseUrl}/"))
{
//removed code, you can call above code as method like
var response= await client.DoThingAsAsync($"{client.BaseAddress}, content").ConfigureAwait(false);
}
protected HttpClient CreateMailClientForPOST(string resource)
{
var handler = new HttpClientHandler();
if (handler.SupportsAutomaticDecompression)
{
handler.AutomaticDecompression = System.Net.DecompressionMethods.GZip | System.Net.DecompressionMethods.Deflate;
}
var client = new HttpClient(handler)
{
BaseAddress = new Uri($"https://api.address.com/rest/{resource}")
};
return client;
}

Related

Trying to pass several headers in get request [duplicate]

I'm trying to set the Content-Type header of an HttpClient object as required by an API I am calling.
I tried setting the Content-Type like below:
using (var httpClient = new HttpClient())
{
httpClient.BaseAddress = new Uri("http://example.com/");
httpClient.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Accept", "application/json");
httpClient.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Content-Type", "application/json");
// ...
}
It allows me to add the Accept header but when I try to add Content-Type it throws the following exception:
Misused header name. Make sure request headers are used with
HttpRequestMessage, response headers with HttpResponseMessage, and
content headers with HttpContent objects.
How can I set the Content-Type header in a HttpClient request?

The content type is a header of the content, not of the request, which is why this is failing. AddWithoutValidation as suggested by Robert Levy may work, but you can also set the content type when creating the request content itself (note that the code snippet adds application/json in two places-for Accept and Content-Type headers):
HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
client.BaseAddress = new Uri("http://example.com/");
client.DefaultRequestHeaders
.Accept
.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));//ACCEPT header
HttpRequestMessage request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Post, "relativeAddress");
request.Content = new StringContent("{\"name\":\"John Doe\",\"age\":33}",
Encoding.UTF8,
"application/json");//CONTENT-TYPE header
client.SendAsync(request)
.ContinueWith(responseTask =>
{
Console.WriteLine("Response: {0}", responseTask.Result);
});

For those who didn't see Johns comment to carlos solution ...
req.Content.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/octet-stream");

If you don't mind a small library dependency, Flurl.Http [disclosure: I'm the author] makes this uber-simple. Its PostJsonAsync method takes care of both serializing the content and setting the content-type header, and ReceiveJson deserializes the response. If the accept header is required you'll need to set that yourself, but Flurl provides a pretty clean way to do that too:
using Flurl.Http;
var result = await "http://example.com/"
.WithHeader("Accept", "application/json")
.PostJsonAsync(new { ... })
.ReceiveJson<TResult>();
Flurl uses HttpClient and Json.NET under the hood, and it's a PCL so it'll work on a variety of platforms.
PM> Install-Package Flurl.Http

try to use TryAddWithoutValidation
var client = new HttpClient();
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.TryAddWithoutValidation("Content-Type", "application/json; charset=utf-8");

.Net tries to force you to obey certain standards, namely that the Content-Type header can only be specified on requests that have content (e.g. POST, PUT, etc.). Therefore, as others have indicated, the preferred way to set the Content-Type header is through the HttpContent.Headers.ContentType property.
With that said, certain APIs (such as the LiquidFiles Api, as of 2016-12-19) requires setting the Content-Type header for a GET request. .Net will not allow setting this header on the request itself -- even using TryAddWithoutValidation. Furthermore, you cannot specify a Content for the request -- even if it is of zero-length. The only way I could seem to get around this was to resort to reflection. The code (in case some else needs it) is
var field = typeof(System.Net.Http.Headers.HttpRequestHeaders)
.GetField("invalidHeaders", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.NonPublic | System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Static)
?? typeof(System.Net.Http.Headers.HttpRequestHeaders)
.GetField("s_invalidHeaders", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.NonPublic | System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Static);
if (field != null)
{
var invalidFields = (HashSet<string>)field.GetValue(null);
invalidFields.Remove("Content-Type");
}
_client.DefaultRequestHeaders.TryAddWithoutValidation("Content-Type", "text/xml");
Edit:
As noted in the comments, this field has different names in different versions of the dll. In the source code on GitHub, the field is currently named s_invalidHeaders. The example has been modified to account for this per the suggestion of #David Thompson.

For those who troubled with charset
I had very special case that the service provider didn't accept charset, and they refuse to change the substructure to allow it...
Unfortunately HttpClient was setting the header automatically through StringContent, and no matter if you pass null or Encoding.UTF8, it will always set the charset...
Today i was on the edge to change the sub-system; moving from HttpClient to anything else, that something came to my mind..., why not use reflection to empty out the "charset"? ...
And before i even try it, i thought of a way, "maybe I can change it after initialization", and that worked.
Here's how you can set the exact "application/json" header without "; charset=utf-8".
var jsonRequest = JsonSerializeObject(req, options); // Custom function that parse object to string
var stringContent = new StringContent(jsonRequest, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");
stringContent.Headers.ContentType.CharSet = null;
return stringContent;
Note: The null value in following won't work, and append "; charset=utf-8"
return new StringContent(jsonRequest, null, "application/json");
EDIT
#DesertFoxAZ suggests that also the following code can be used and works fine. (didn't test it myself, if it work's rate and credit him in comments)
stringContent.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/json");

Some extra information about .NET Core (after reading erdomke's post about setting a private field to supply the content-type on a request that doesn't have content)...
After debugging my code, I can't see the private field to set via reflection - so I thought I'd try to recreate the problem.
I have tried the following code using .Net 4.6:
HttpRequestMessage httpRequest = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, #"myUrl");
httpRequest.Content = new StringContent(string.Empty, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");
HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
Task<HttpResponseMessage> response = client.SendAsync(httpRequest); //I know I should have used async/await here!
var result = response.Result;
And, as expected, I get an aggregate exception with the content "Cannot send a content-body with this verb-type."
However, if i do the same thing with .NET Core (1.1) - I don't get an exception. My request was quite happily answered by my server application, and the content-type was picked up.
I was pleasantly surprised about that, and I hope it helps someone!

Call AddWithoutValidation instead of Add (see this MSDN link).
Alternatively, I'm guessing the API you are using really only requires this for POST or PUT requests (not ordinary GET requests). In that case, when you call HttpClient.PostAsync and pass in an HttpContent, set this on the Headers property of that HttpContent object.

The trick is that you can just set all kinds of headers like:
HttpRequestMessage request = new HttpRequestMessage();
request.Headers.Add("Accept-Language", "en"); //works OK
but not any header. For example:
request.Headers.Add("Content-Type", "application/json");//wrong
will raise the run-time exception Misused header name. It may seem that this will work:
request.Headers.Add(
HttpRequestHeader.ContentType.ToString(), //useless
"application/json"
);
but this gives a useless header named ContentType, without the hyphen. Header names are not case-sensitive, but are very hyphen-sensitive.
The solution is to declare the encoding and type of the body when adding the body to the Content part of the http request:
string Body = "...";
request.Content =
new StringContent(Body, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");
Only then the applicable http header is automatically added to the request:
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
It was hard to find this out, with Fiddler, on a machine without a proxy server. Visual Studio used to have a Network Tool where you could inspect all headers, but only in version 2015, not in newer versions 2017 or 2022. If you use the debugger to inspect request.Headers, you will not find the header added automagically by StringContent().

var content = new JsonContent();
content.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/json");
content.Headers.ContentType.Parameters.Add(new NameValueHeaderValue("charset", "utf-8"));
content.Headers.ContentType.Parameters.Add(new NameValueHeaderValue("IEEE754Compatible", "true"));
It's all what you need.
With using Newtonsoft.Json, if you need a content as json string.
public class JsonContent : HttpContent
{
private readonly MemoryStream _stream = new MemoryStream();
~JsonContent()
{
_stream.Dispose();
}
public JsonContent(object value)
{
Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/json");
using (var contexStream = new MemoryStream())
using (var jw = new JsonTextWriter(new StreamWriter(contexStream)) { Formatting = Formatting.Indented })
{
var serializer = new JsonSerializer();
serializer.Serialize(jw, value);
jw.Flush();
contexStream.Position = 0;
contexStream.WriteTo(_stream);
}
_stream.Position = 0;
}
private JsonContent(string content)
{
Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/json");
using (var contexStream = new MemoryStream())
using (var sw = new StreamWriter(contexStream))
{
sw.Write(content);
sw.Flush();
contexStream.Position = 0;
contexStream.WriteTo(_stream);
}
_stream.Position = 0;
}
protected override Task SerializeToStreamAsync(Stream stream, TransportContext context)
{
return _stream.CopyToAsync(stream);
}
protected override bool TryComputeLength(out long length)
{
length = _stream.Length;
return true;
}
public static HttpContent FromFile(string filepath)
{
var content = File.ReadAllText(filepath);
return new JsonContent(content);
}
public string ToJsonString()
{
return Encoding.ASCII.GetString(_stream.GetBuffer(), 0, _stream.GetBuffer().Length).Trim();
}
}

It appears that Microsoft tries to force the developers to follow their standards, without even giving any options or settings to do otherwise, which is really a shame especially given that this is a client and we are dictated by the server side requirements, especially given that Microsoft server side frameworks themselves require it!
So basically Microsoft tries to force us good habits when connecting to their server technologies that force us non good habits...
If anyone from Microsoft is reading this, then please fix it...
Either way for anyone that needs the content-type header for Get etc., while in an older .Net version it is possible to use the answer of #erdomke at https://stackoverflow.com/a/41231353/640195 this unfortunately no longer works in the newer .Net core versions.
The following code has been tested to work with .Net core 3.1 and from the source code on GitHub it looks like it should work with newer .Net versions as well.
private void FixContentTypeHeaders()
{
var assembly = typeof(System.Net.Http.Headers.HttpRequestHeaders).Assembly;
var assemblyTypes = assembly.GetTypes();
var knownHeaderType = assemblyTypes.FirstOrDefault(n => n.Name == "KnownHeader");
var headerTypeField = knownHeaderType?
.GetFields(System.Reflection.BindingFlags.NonPublic | System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Instance)
.FirstOrDefault(n => n.Name.Contains("HeaderType"));
if (headerTypeField is null) return;
var headerTypeFieldType = headerTypeField.FieldType;
var newValue = Enum.Parse(headerTypeFieldType, "All");
var knownHeadersType = assemblyTypes.FirstOrDefault(n => n.Name == "KnownHeaders");
var contentTypeObj = knownHeadersType.GetFields().FirstOrDefault(n => n.Name == "ContentType").GetValue(null);
if (contentTypeObj is null) return;
headerTypeField.SetValue(contentTypeObj, newValue);
}

You can use this it will be work!
HttpRequestMessage msg = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get,"URL");
msg.Content = new StringContent(string.Empty, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");
HttpResponseMessage response = await _httpClient.SendAsync(msg);
response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
string json = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();

Ok, it's not HTTPClient but if u can use it, WebClient is quite easy:
using (var client = new System.Net.WebClient())
{
client.Headers.Add("Accept", "application/json");
client.Headers.Add("Content-Type", "application/json; charset=utf-8");
client.DownloadString(...);
}

try to use HttpClientFactory
services.AddSingleton<WebRequestXXX>()
.AddHttpClient<WebRequestXXX>("ClientX", config =>
{
config.BaseAddress = new System.Uri("https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com");
config.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));
config.DefaultRequestHeaders.TryAddWithoutValidation("Content-Type", "application/json; charset=utf-8");
});
======================
public class WebRequestXXXX
{
private readonly IHttpClientFactory _httpClientFactory;
public WebRequestXXXX(IHttpClientFactory httpClientFactory)
{
_httpClientFactory = httpClientFactory;
}
public List<Posts> GetAllPosts()
{
using (var _client = _httpClientFactory.CreateClient("ClientX"))
{
var response = _client.GetAsync("/posts").Result;
if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
{
var itemString = response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result;
var itemJson = System.Text.Json.JsonSerializer.Deserialize<List<Posts>>(itemString,
new System.Text.Json.JsonSerializerOptions
{
PropertyNameCaseInsensitive = true
});
return itemJson;
}
else
{
return new List<Posts>();
}
}
}
}

I got the answer whith RestSharp:
private async Task<string> GetAccessTokenAsync()
{
var client = new RestClient(_baseURL);
var request = new RestRequest("auth/v1/login", Method.POST, DataFormat.Json);
request.AddHeader("Content-Type", "application/json");
request.AddHeader("x-api-key", _apiKey);
request.AddHeader("Accept-Language", "br");
request.AddHeader("x-client-tenant", "1");
...
}
It worked for me.

You need to do it like this:
HttpContent httpContent = new StringContent(#"{ the json string }");
httpContent.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/json");
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));
HttpResponseMessage message = client.PostAsync(#"{url}", httpContent).Result;

For those wanting to set the Content-Type to Json specifically, you can use the extension method PostAsJsonAsync.
using System.Net.Http.Json; //this is needed for PostAsJsonAsync to work
//....
HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
HttpResponseMessage response = await
client.PostAsJsonAsync("http://example.com/" + "relativeAddress",
new
{
name = "John Doe",
age = 33
});
//Do what you need to do with your response
The advantage here is cleaner code and you get to avoid stringified json. More details can be found at: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/aspnet/hh944339(v=vs.118)

I find it most simple and easy to understand in the following way:
async Task SendPostRequest()
{
HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
var requestContent = new StringContent(<content>);
requestContent.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/json");
var response = await client.PostAsync(<url>, requestContent);
var responseString = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
}
...
SendPostRequest().Wait();

I end up having similar issue.
So I discovered that the Software PostMan can generate code when clicking the "Code" button at upper/left corner. From that we can see what going on "under the hood" and the HTTP call is generated in many code language; curl command, C# RestShart, java, nodeJs, ...
That helped me a lot and instead of using .Net base HttpClient I ended up using RestSharp nuget package.
Hope that can help someone else!

Api returned
"Unsupported Media Type","status":415
Adding ContentType to the jsonstring did the magic and this is my script working 100% as of today
using (var client = new HttpClient())
{
var endpoint = "api/endpoint;
var userName = "xxxxxxxxxx";
var passwd = "xxxxxxxxxx";
var content = new StringContent(jsonString, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");
var authToken = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes($"{userName}:{passwd}");
client.BaseAddress = new Uri("https://example.com/");
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Basic", Convert.ToBase64String(authToken));
HttpResponseMessage response = await client.PostAsync(endpoint, content);
if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
{
// Get the URI of the created resource.
Uri returnUrl = response.Headers.Location;
Console.WriteLine(returnUrl);
}
string responseBody = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
return responseBody;
}

For my scenario, a third-party API was creating the HttpRequestMessage, so I was not able to use the top-voted answers to resolve the issue. And I didn't like the idea of messing with reflection so the other answers didn't work either.
Instead, I extended from AndroidMessageHandler and used this new class as a parameter to HttpClient. AndroidMessageHandler contains the method SendAsync which can be overridden in order to make changes to the HttpRequestMessage object before it is sent. If you don't have access to the Android Xamarin libaries, you may be able to figure something out with HttpMessageHandler.
public class XamarinHttpMessageHandler : global::Xamarin.Android.Net.AndroidMessageHandler
{
protected override Task<HttpResponseMessage> SendAsync(HttpRequestMessage request, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
{
// Here I make check that I'm only modifying a specific request
// and not all of them.
if (request.RequestUri != null && request.RequestUri.AbsolutePath.EndsWith("download") && request.Content != null)
{
request.Content.Headers.Add("Content-Type", "text/plain");
}
return base.SendAsync(request, cancellationToken);
}
}
Then to use:
var client = new HttpClient(new XamarinHttpMessageHandler());

So if you're trying to do a /$batch OData request like this Microsoft article demonstrates where you're supposed to have a Content-Type header like:
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;boundary=batch_d3bcb804-ee77-4921-9a45-761f98d32029
string headerValue = "multipart/mixed;boundary=batch_d3bcb804-ee77-4921-9a45-761f98d32029";
//You need to set it like thus:
request.Content.Headers.ContentType = MediaTypeHeaderValue.Parse(headerValue);
Again, the magic you need is: MediaTypeHeaderValue.Parse(...)

stringContent.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue(contentType);
And 🎉 YES! 🎉 ... that cleared up the problem with ATS REST API: SharedKey works now! 😄 👍 🍻
Source: https://github.com/dotnet/runtime/issues/17036#issuecomment-212046628

Rewriting a Java HttpURLConnection method using C# HttpClient

I've got a working Java method that uses java.net.HttpURLConnection that I should re-implement in C# using the .NET HttpClient.
Java method:
public static String getMyThingAPIToken() throws IOException{
URL apiURL = new URL("https://myThingAPI/token");
HttpURLConnection apiConnection = (HttpURLConnection) apiURL.openConnection();
apiConnection.setRequestMethod("POST");
apiConnection.setDoOutput(true);
String apiBodyString = "myThingAPI login id and secret key";
byte[] apiBody = apiBodyString.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8);
OutputStream apiBodyStream = apiConnection.getOutputStream();
apiBodyStream.write(apiBody);
StringBuffer apiResponseBuffer;
try (BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(apiConnection.getInputStream()))){
String inputline;
apiResponseBuffer = new StringBuffer();
while((inputline = in.readLine()) != null) {
apiResponseBuffer.append(inputline);
}
}
}
So far, my C# looks like below, and you'll notice that this early form of my implementation does not interpret the response. Nor does it have a string return type required for the token string.
This is because when I test it, the response has:
StatusCode: 400
ReasonPhrase: 'Bad Request'
So something in my apiBody byte array or use of PostAsync must be different to what the Java method does, but I cannot work out what it could be.
public async static Task<HttpResponseMessage> getMyThingAPIToken(HttpClient client)
{
var apiURI = new Uri("https://myThingAPI/token");
string apiBodystring = "myThingAPI login id and secret key";
byte[] apiBody = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(apiBodystring);
var response = await client.PostAsync(apiURI, new ByteArrayContent(apiBody));
return response;
}

The Java code doesn't specify a type which means that by default the request uses application/x-www-form-urlencoded. This is used for FORM POST requests.
The default content type for ByteArrayContent on the other hand is application/octet-stream while for StringContent it's text/plain.
FORM content is used through the FormUrlEncoodedContent class which can accept any Dictionary<string,string> as payload.
The input in the question is not in a x-www-form-urlencoded form so either it's not the real content or the API is misusing content types.
Assuming the API accepts proper x-www-form-urlencoded content, the following should work:
var data=new Dictionary<string,string>{
["login"]=....,
["secret"]=.....,
["someOtherField"]=....
};
var content= new FormUrlEncodedContent(data);
var response=await client.PostAsync(apiURI,content);
To send any text using application/x-www-form-urlencoded, we need to specify the content type in StringContent's constructor:
var contentType="application/x-www-form-urlencoded";
var content= new StringContent(apiBodyString, Encoding.UTF8,contentType);
var response=await client.PostAsync(apiURI,content);

Can you try using following code:
client.BaseAddress = new Uri("https://myThingAPI/");
var message = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Post, "/token");
// Add your login id and secret key here with the format you want to send
message.Content = new StringContent(string.Format("userName={0}&password={1}", UserName, Password));
var result = await client.SendAsync(message);
return result;

How to add the header Xamarin Forms using System.Net.Http; [duplicate]

I'm trying to set the Content-Type header of an HttpClient object as required by an API I am calling.
I tried setting the Content-Type like below:
using (var httpClient = new HttpClient())
{
httpClient.BaseAddress = new Uri("http://example.com/");
httpClient.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Accept", "application/json");
httpClient.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Content-Type", "application/json");
// ...
}
It allows me to add the Accept header but when I try to add Content-Type it throws the following exception:
Misused header name. Make sure request headers are used with
HttpRequestMessage, response headers with HttpResponseMessage, and
content headers with HttpContent objects.
How can I set the Content-Type header in a HttpClient request?

The content type is a header of the content, not of the request, which is why this is failing. AddWithoutValidation as suggested by Robert Levy may work, but you can also set the content type when creating the request content itself (note that the code snippet adds application/json in two places-for Accept and Content-Type headers):
HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
client.BaseAddress = new Uri("http://example.com/");
client.DefaultRequestHeaders
.Accept
.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));//ACCEPT header
HttpRequestMessage request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Post, "relativeAddress");
request.Content = new StringContent("{\"name\":\"John Doe\",\"age\":33}",
Encoding.UTF8,
"application/json");//CONTENT-TYPE header
client.SendAsync(request)
.ContinueWith(responseTask =>
{
Console.WriteLine("Response: {0}", responseTask.Result);
});

For those who didn't see Johns comment to carlos solution ...
req.Content.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/octet-stream");

If you don't mind a small library dependency, Flurl.Http [disclosure: I'm the author] makes this uber-simple. Its PostJsonAsync method takes care of both serializing the content and setting the content-type header, and ReceiveJson deserializes the response. If the accept header is required you'll need to set that yourself, but Flurl provides a pretty clean way to do that too:
using Flurl.Http;
var result = await "http://example.com/"
.WithHeader("Accept", "application/json")
.PostJsonAsync(new { ... })
.ReceiveJson<TResult>();
Flurl uses HttpClient and Json.NET under the hood, and it's a PCL so it'll work on a variety of platforms.
PM> Install-Package Flurl.Http

try to use TryAddWithoutValidation
var client = new HttpClient();
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.TryAddWithoutValidation("Content-Type", "application/json; charset=utf-8");

.Net tries to force you to obey certain standards, namely that the Content-Type header can only be specified on requests that have content (e.g. POST, PUT, etc.). Therefore, as others have indicated, the preferred way to set the Content-Type header is through the HttpContent.Headers.ContentType property.
With that said, certain APIs (such as the LiquidFiles Api, as of 2016-12-19) requires setting the Content-Type header for a GET request. .Net will not allow setting this header on the request itself -- even using TryAddWithoutValidation. Furthermore, you cannot specify a Content for the request -- even if it is of zero-length. The only way I could seem to get around this was to resort to reflection. The code (in case some else needs it) is
var field = typeof(System.Net.Http.Headers.HttpRequestHeaders)
.GetField("invalidHeaders", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.NonPublic | System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Static)
?? typeof(System.Net.Http.Headers.HttpRequestHeaders)
.GetField("s_invalidHeaders", System.Reflection.BindingFlags.NonPublic | System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Static);
if (field != null)
{
var invalidFields = (HashSet<string>)field.GetValue(null);
invalidFields.Remove("Content-Type");
}
_client.DefaultRequestHeaders.TryAddWithoutValidation("Content-Type", "text/xml");
Edit:
As noted in the comments, this field has different names in different versions of the dll. In the source code on GitHub, the field is currently named s_invalidHeaders. The example has been modified to account for this per the suggestion of #David Thompson.

For those who troubled with charset
I had very special case that the service provider didn't accept charset, and they refuse to change the substructure to allow it...
Unfortunately HttpClient was setting the header automatically through StringContent, and no matter if you pass null or Encoding.UTF8, it will always set the charset...
Today i was on the edge to change the sub-system; moving from HttpClient to anything else, that something came to my mind..., why not use reflection to empty out the "charset"? ...
And before i even try it, i thought of a way, "maybe I can change it after initialization", and that worked.
Here's how you can set the exact "application/json" header without "; charset=utf-8".
var jsonRequest = JsonSerializeObject(req, options); // Custom function that parse object to string
var stringContent = new StringContent(jsonRequest, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");
stringContent.Headers.ContentType.CharSet = null;
return stringContent;
Note: The null value in following won't work, and append "; charset=utf-8"
return new StringContent(jsonRequest, null, "application/json");
EDIT
#DesertFoxAZ suggests that also the following code can be used and works fine. (didn't test it myself, if it work's rate and credit him in comments)
stringContent.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/json");

Some extra information about .NET Core (after reading erdomke's post about setting a private field to supply the content-type on a request that doesn't have content)...
After debugging my code, I can't see the private field to set via reflection - so I thought I'd try to recreate the problem.
I have tried the following code using .Net 4.6:
HttpRequestMessage httpRequest = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, #"myUrl");
httpRequest.Content = new StringContent(string.Empty, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");
HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
Task<HttpResponseMessage> response = client.SendAsync(httpRequest); //I know I should have used async/await here!
var result = response.Result;
And, as expected, I get an aggregate exception with the content "Cannot send a content-body with this verb-type."
However, if i do the same thing with .NET Core (1.1) - I don't get an exception. My request was quite happily answered by my server application, and the content-type was picked up.
I was pleasantly surprised about that, and I hope it helps someone!

Call AddWithoutValidation instead of Add (see this MSDN link).
Alternatively, I'm guessing the API you are using really only requires this for POST or PUT requests (not ordinary GET requests). In that case, when you call HttpClient.PostAsync and pass in an HttpContent, set this on the Headers property of that HttpContent object.

The trick is that you can just set all kinds of headers like:
HttpRequestMessage request = new HttpRequestMessage();
request.Headers.Add("Accept-Language", "en"); //works OK
but not any header. For example:
request.Headers.Add("Content-Type", "application/json");//wrong
will raise the run-time exception Misused header name. It may seem that this will work:
request.Headers.Add(
HttpRequestHeader.ContentType.ToString(), //useless
"application/json"
);
but this gives a useless header named ContentType, without the hyphen. Header names are not case-sensitive, but are very hyphen-sensitive.
The solution is to declare the encoding and type of the body when adding the body to the Content part of the http request:
string Body = "...";
request.Content =
new StringContent(Body, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");
Only then the applicable http header is automatically added to the request:
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
It was hard to find this out, with Fiddler, on a machine without a proxy server. Visual Studio used to have a Network Tool where you could inspect all headers, but only in version 2015, not in newer versions 2017 or 2022. If you use the debugger to inspect request.Headers, you will not find the header added automagically by StringContent().

var content = new JsonContent();
content.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/json");
content.Headers.ContentType.Parameters.Add(new NameValueHeaderValue("charset", "utf-8"));
content.Headers.ContentType.Parameters.Add(new NameValueHeaderValue("IEEE754Compatible", "true"));
It's all what you need.
With using Newtonsoft.Json, if you need a content as json string.
public class JsonContent : HttpContent
{
private readonly MemoryStream _stream = new MemoryStream();
~JsonContent()
{
_stream.Dispose();
}
public JsonContent(object value)
{
Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/json");
using (var contexStream = new MemoryStream())
using (var jw = new JsonTextWriter(new StreamWriter(contexStream)) { Formatting = Formatting.Indented })
{
var serializer = new JsonSerializer();
serializer.Serialize(jw, value);
jw.Flush();
contexStream.Position = 0;
contexStream.WriteTo(_stream);
}
_stream.Position = 0;
}
private JsonContent(string content)
{
Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/json");
using (var contexStream = new MemoryStream())
using (var sw = new StreamWriter(contexStream))
{
sw.Write(content);
sw.Flush();
contexStream.Position = 0;
contexStream.WriteTo(_stream);
}
_stream.Position = 0;
}
protected override Task SerializeToStreamAsync(Stream stream, TransportContext context)
{
return _stream.CopyToAsync(stream);
}
protected override bool TryComputeLength(out long length)
{
length = _stream.Length;
return true;
}
public static HttpContent FromFile(string filepath)
{
var content = File.ReadAllText(filepath);
return new JsonContent(content);
}
public string ToJsonString()
{
return Encoding.ASCII.GetString(_stream.GetBuffer(), 0, _stream.GetBuffer().Length).Trim();
}
}

It appears that Microsoft tries to force the developers to follow their standards, without even giving any options or settings to do otherwise, which is really a shame especially given that this is a client and we are dictated by the server side requirements, especially given that Microsoft server side frameworks themselves require it!
So basically Microsoft tries to force us good habits when connecting to their server technologies that force us non good habits...
If anyone from Microsoft is reading this, then please fix it...
Either way for anyone that needs the content-type header for Get etc., while in an older .Net version it is possible to use the answer of #erdomke at https://stackoverflow.com/a/41231353/640195 this unfortunately no longer works in the newer .Net core versions.
The following code has been tested to work with .Net core 3.1 and from the source code on GitHub it looks like it should work with newer .Net versions as well.
private void FixContentTypeHeaders()
{
var assembly = typeof(System.Net.Http.Headers.HttpRequestHeaders).Assembly;
var assemblyTypes = assembly.GetTypes();
var knownHeaderType = assemblyTypes.FirstOrDefault(n => n.Name == "KnownHeader");
var headerTypeField = knownHeaderType?
.GetFields(System.Reflection.BindingFlags.NonPublic | System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Instance)
.FirstOrDefault(n => n.Name.Contains("HeaderType"));
if (headerTypeField is null) return;
var headerTypeFieldType = headerTypeField.FieldType;
var newValue = Enum.Parse(headerTypeFieldType, "All");
var knownHeadersType = assemblyTypes.FirstOrDefault(n => n.Name == "KnownHeaders");
var contentTypeObj = knownHeadersType.GetFields().FirstOrDefault(n => n.Name == "ContentType").GetValue(null);
if (contentTypeObj is null) return;
headerTypeField.SetValue(contentTypeObj, newValue);
}

You can use this it will be work!
HttpRequestMessage msg = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get,"URL");
msg.Content = new StringContent(string.Empty, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");
HttpResponseMessage response = await _httpClient.SendAsync(msg);
response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
string json = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();

Ok, it's not HTTPClient but if u can use it, WebClient is quite easy:
using (var client = new System.Net.WebClient())
{
client.Headers.Add("Accept", "application/json");
client.Headers.Add("Content-Type", "application/json; charset=utf-8");
client.DownloadString(...);
}

try to use HttpClientFactory
services.AddSingleton<WebRequestXXX>()
.AddHttpClient<WebRequestXXX>("ClientX", config =>
{
config.BaseAddress = new System.Uri("https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com");
config.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));
config.DefaultRequestHeaders.TryAddWithoutValidation("Content-Type", "application/json; charset=utf-8");
});
======================
public class WebRequestXXXX
{
private readonly IHttpClientFactory _httpClientFactory;
public WebRequestXXXX(IHttpClientFactory httpClientFactory)
{
_httpClientFactory = httpClientFactory;
}
public List<Posts> GetAllPosts()
{
using (var _client = _httpClientFactory.CreateClient("ClientX"))
{
var response = _client.GetAsync("/posts").Result;
if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
{
var itemString = response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result;
var itemJson = System.Text.Json.JsonSerializer.Deserialize<List<Posts>>(itemString,
new System.Text.Json.JsonSerializerOptions
{
PropertyNameCaseInsensitive = true
});
return itemJson;
}
else
{
return new List<Posts>();
}
}
}
}

I got the answer whith RestSharp:
private async Task<string> GetAccessTokenAsync()
{
var client = new RestClient(_baseURL);
var request = new RestRequest("auth/v1/login", Method.POST, DataFormat.Json);
request.AddHeader("Content-Type", "application/json");
request.AddHeader("x-api-key", _apiKey);
request.AddHeader("Accept-Language", "br");
request.AddHeader("x-client-tenant", "1");
...
}
It worked for me.

You need to do it like this:
HttpContent httpContent = new StringContent(#"{ the json string }");
httpContent.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/json");
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));
HttpResponseMessage message = client.PostAsync(#"{url}", httpContent).Result;

For those wanting to set the Content-Type to Json specifically, you can use the extension method PostAsJsonAsync.
using System.Net.Http.Json; //this is needed for PostAsJsonAsync to work
//....
HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
HttpResponseMessage response = await
client.PostAsJsonAsync("http://example.com/" + "relativeAddress",
new
{
name = "John Doe",
age = 33
});
//Do what you need to do with your response
The advantage here is cleaner code and you get to avoid stringified json. More details can be found at: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/aspnet/hh944339(v=vs.118)

I find it most simple and easy to understand in the following way:
async Task SendPostRequest()
{
HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
var requestContent = new StringContent(<content>);
requestContent.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/json");
var response = await client.PostAsync(<url>, requestContent);
var responseString = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
}
...
SendPostRequest().Wait();

I end up having similar issue.
So I discovered that the Software PostMan can generate code when clicking the "Code" button at upper/left corner. From that we can see what going on "under the hood" and the HTTP call is generated in many code language; curl command, C# RestShart, java, nodeJs, ...
That helped me a lot and instead of using .Net base HttpClient I ended up using RestSharp nuget package.
Hope that can help someone else!

Api returned
"Unsupported Media Type","status":415
Adding ContentType to the jsonstring did the magic and this is my script working 100% as of today
using (var client = new HttpClient())
{
var endpoint = "api/endpoint;
var userName = "xxxxxxxxxx";
var passwd = "xxxxxxxxxx";
var content = new StringContent(jsonString, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");
var authToken = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes($"{userName}:{passwd}");
client.BaseAddress = new Uri("https://example.com/");
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Basic", Convert.ToBase64String(authToken));
HttpResponseMessage response = await client.PostAsync(endpoint, content);
if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
{
// Get the URI of the created resource.
Uri returnUrl = response.Headers.Location;
Console.WriteLine(returnUrl);
}
string responseBody = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
return responseBody;
}

For my scenario, a third-party API was creating the HttpRequestMessage, so I was not able to use the top-voted answers to resolve the issue. And I didn't like the idea of messing with reflection so the other answers didn't work either.
Instead, I extended from AndroidMessageHandler and used this new class as a parameter to HttpClient. AndroidMessageHandler contains the method SendAsync which can be overridden in order to make changes to the HttpRequestMessage object before it is sent. If you don't have access to the Android Xamarin libaries, you may be able to figure something out with HttpMessageHandler.
public class XamarinHttpMessageHandler : global::Xamarin.Android.Net.AndroidMessageHandler
{
protected override Task<HttpResponseMessage> SendAsync(HttpRequestMessage request, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
{
// Here I make check that I'm only modifying a specific request
// and not all of them.
if (request.RequestUri != null && request.RequestUri.AbsolutePath.EndsWith("download") && request.Content != null)
{
request.Content.Headers.Add("Content-Type", "text/plain");
}
return base.SendAsync(request, cancellationToken);
}
}
Then to use:
var client = new HttpClient(new XamarinHttpMessageHandler());

So if you're trying to do a /$batch OData request like this Microsoft article demonstrates where you're supposed to have a Content-Type header like:
Content-Type: multipart/mixed;boundary=batch_d3bcb804-ee77-4921-9a45-761f98d32029
string headerValue = "multipart/mixed;boundary=batch_d3bcb804-ee77-4921-9a45-761f98d32029";
//You need to set it like thus:
request.Content.Headers.ContentType = MediaTypeHeaderValue.Parse(headerValue);
Again, the magic you need is: MediaTypeHeaderValue.Parse(...)

stringContent.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue(contentType);
And 🎉 YES! 🎉 ... that cleared up the problem with ATS REST API: SharedKey works now! 😄 👍 🍻
Source: https://github.com/dotnet/runtime/issues/17036#issuecomment-212046628

Send HTTP Post request in Xamarin Forms C#

Before I start, I would like to say that I have googled solutions to this problem but have either not understood them (I am a newbie) or they do not work.
What I want to do is send JSON data to a REST API on localhost:8000, in this format:
{
"username" : "myusername",
"password" : "mypass"
}
Then, I expect a response which holds a string token, like the following,
{
"token" : "rgh2ghgdsfds"
}
How do send the json data and then parse the token from the response?
I have seen synchronous methods of doing this but for some reason, they do not work (or simply because I do not know what namespace it is in). If you apply an async way of doing this, could you please explain to me how it works?
Thanks in advance.

I use HttpClient. A simple example:
var client = new HttpClient();
client.BaseAddress = new Uri("localhost:8080");
string jsonData = #"{""username"" : ""myusername"", ""password"" : ""mypassword""}"
var content = new StringContent (jsonData, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");
HttpResponseMessage response = await client.PostAsync("/foo/login", content);
// this result string should be something like: "{"token":"rgh2ghgdsfds"}"
var result = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
Where "/foo/login" will need to point to your HTTP resource. For example, if you have an AccountController with a Login method, then instead of "/foo/login" you would use something like "/Account/Login".
In general though, to handle the serializing and deserializing, I recommend using a tool like Json.Net.
As for the question about how it works, there is a lot going on here. If you have questions about how the async/await stuff works then I suggest you read Asynchronous Programming with Async and Await on MSDN

This should be fairly easy with HttpClient.
Something like this could work. However, you might need to proxy data from the device/simulator somehow to reach your server.
var client = new HttpClient();
var content = new StringContent(
JsonConvert.SerializeObject(new { username = "myusername", password = "mypass" }));
var result = await client.PostAsync("localhost:8080", content).ConfigureAwait(false);
if (result.IsSuccessStatusCode)
{
var tokenJson = await result.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
}
This code would probably go into a method with the following signature:
private async Task<string> Login(string username, string password)
{
// code
}
Watch out using void instead of Task as return type. If you do that and any exception is thrown inside of the method that exception will not bubble out and it will go unhandled; that will cause the app to blow up. Best practice is only to use void when we are inside an event or similar. In those cases make sure to handle all possible exceptions properly.
Also the example above uses HttpClient from System.Net.HttpClient. Some PCL profiles does not include that. In those cases you need to add Microsoft's HttpClient library from Nuget. I also use JSON.Net (Newtonsoft.Json) to serialize the object with username and password.
I would also note that sending username and password in cleartext like this is not really recommended and should be done otherwise.
EDIT: If you are using .NET Standard on most of the versions you won't need to install System.Net.HttpClient from NuGet anymore, since it already comes with it.

try this code.
HttpClient httpClient = new HttpClient();
httpClient.BaseAddress = new Uri(APIAddress); // Insert your API URL Address here.
string serializedObject = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(data);
HttpContent contentPost = new StringContent(serializedObject, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");
try
{
HttpResponseMessage response = await httpClient.PostAsync(ControllerWithMethod, contentPost);
return response;
}
catch (TaskCanceledException ex)
{
throw;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
return new HttpResponseMessage();
}

How to pass long string in HttpClient.PostAsync request

Trying to send a rather long string to a REST web api (youtrack). I get the following exception:
Invalid URI: The Uri string is too long.
My code:
var encodedMessage = HttpUtility.UrlEncode(message);
var requestUri = string.Format("{0}{1}issue/{2}/execute?comment={3}", url, YoutrackRestUrl, issue.Id, encodedMessage);
var response = await httpClient.PostAsync(requestUri, null).ConfigureAwait(false);
So I took my chances with a FormUrlEncodedContent
var requestUri = string.Format("{0}{1}issue/{2}/execute", url, YoutrackRestUrl, issue.Id);
var postData = new List<KeyValuePair<string, string>>();
postData.Add(new KeyValuePair<string, string>("comment", message));
var content = new FormUrlEncodedContent(postData);
var response = await httpClient.PostAsync(requestUri, content).ConfigureAwait(false);
Which results in the exact same issue.
The string (comment) I am sending, is the changed file set of a commit into SVN. Which can be really long, so I don't really have a way to get around that. Is there a way to post content without the string length restriction?
Read the following topics, but didn't find an answer there:
.NET HttpClient. How to POST string value?
How do I set up HttpContent for my HttpClient PostAsync second parameter?
https://psycodedeveloper.wordpress.com/2014/06/30/how-to-call-httpclient-postasync-with-a-query-string/
http://forums.asp.net/t/2057125.aspx?Invalid+URI+The+Uri+string+is+too+long+HttpClient

Well the short answer to it - just put it into the Body, instead of trying to push all the data via the URL
But as the work on the ticket showed - the answer was here How to set large string inside HttpContent when using HttpClient?
The actual problem beeing in the FormUrlEncodedContent

Try this..Will be helpful for uwp..
Uri uri = new Uri("your uri string");
Windows.Web.Http.HttpClient client = new Windows.Web.Http.HttpClient();
var value1 = new System.Collections.Generic.List<System.Collections.Generic.KeyValuePair<string,string>>
{
// your key value pairs
};
var response = await client.PostAsync(uri,new HttpFormUrlEncodedContent(value1));
var result = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();

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