Custom header to HttpClient request - c#

How do I add a custom header to a HttpClient request? I am using PostAsJsonAsync method to post the JSON. The custom header that I would need to be added is
"X-Version: 1"
This is what I have done so far:
using (var client = new HttpClient()) {
client.BaseAddress = new Uri("https://api.clickatell.com/");
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Clear();
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Bearer", "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx");
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));
var response = client.PostAsJsonAsync("rest/message", svm).Result;
}

I have found the answer to my question.
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("X-Version","1");
That should add a custom header to your request

Here is an answer based on that by Anubis (which is a better approach as it doesn't modify the headers for every request) but which is more equivalent to the code in the original question:
using Newtonsoft.Json;
...
var client = new HttpClient();
var httpRequestMessage = new HttpRequestMessage
{
Method = HttpMethod.Post,
RequestUri = new Uri("https://api.clickatell.com/rest/message"),
Headers = {
{ HttpRequestHeader.Authorization.ToString(), "Bearer xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" },
{ HttpRequestHeader.Accept.ToString(), "application/json" },
{ "X-Version", "1" }
},
Content = new StringContent(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(svm))
};
var response = client.SendAsync(httpRequestMessage).Result;

var request = new HttpRequestMessage {
RequestUri = new Uri("[your request url string]"),
Method = HttpMethod.Post,
Headers = {
{ "X-Version", "1" } // HERE IS HOW TO ADD HEADERS,
{ HttpRequestHeader.Authorization.ToString(), "[your authorization token]" },
{ HttpRequestHeader.ContentType.ToString(), "multipart/mixed" },//use this content type if you want to send more than one content type
},
Content = new MultipartContent { // Just example of request sending multipart request
new ObjectContent<[YOUR JSON OBJECT TYPE]>(
new [YOUR JSON OBJECT TYPE INSTANCE](...){...},
new JsonMediaTypeFormatter(),
"application/json"), // this will add 'Content-Type' header for the first part of request
new ByteArrayContent([BINARY DATA]) {
Headers = { // this will add headers for the second part of request
{ "Content-Type", "application/Executable" },
{ "Content-Disposition", "form-data; filename=\"test.pdf\"" },
},
},
},
};

There is a Headers property in the HttpRequestMessage class. You can add custom headers there, which will be sent with each HTTP request. The DefaultRequestHeaders in the HttpClient class, on the other hand, sets headers to be sent with each request sent using that client object, hence the name Default Request Headers.
Hope this makes things more clear, at least for someone seeing this answer in future.

I have added x-api-version in HttpClient headers as below :
var client = new HttpClient(httpClientHandler)
{
BaseAddress = new Uri(callingUrl)
};
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Clear();
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new System.Net.Http.Headers.MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("x-api-version", v2);

My two cents. I agree with heug. The accepted answer is a mind bender. Let's take a step back.
Default headers apply to all requests made by a particular HttpClient. Hence you would use default headers for shared headers.
_client.DefaultRequestHeaders.UserAgent.ParseAdd(_options.UserAgent);
However, we sometimes need headers specific to a certain request. We would therefore use something like this in the method:
public static async Task<HttpResponseMessage> GetWithHeadersAsync(this
HttpClient httpClient, string requestUri, Dictionary<string, string> headers)
{
using (var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, requestUri))
{
foreach(var header in headers)
{
request.Headers.Add(header.Key, header.Value);
}
return await httpClient.SendAsync(request);
}
}
If you only need one additional non-default header you would simply use:
request.Headers.Add("X-Version","1")
For more help:
How to add request headers when using HttpClient

Also you can use HttpClient.PostAsync method:
using (HttpClient http_client = new HttpClient())
{
StringContent string_content = new StringContent(JsonSerializer.Serialize("{\"field\":\"field_value\"}"));
string_content.Headers.Add("X-Version","1");
using (HttpResponseMessage response = await http_client.PostAsync("http://127.0.0.1/apiMethodName", string_content))
{
if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
{
Console.WriteLine($"Response status code: {response.StatusCode}");
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine($"Error status code: {response.StatusCode}");
}
}
}

Just in case someone is wondering how to call httpClient.GetStreamAsync() which does not have an overload which takes HttpRequestMessage to provide custom headers you can use the above code given by #Anubis and call
await response.Content.ReadAsStreamAsync()
Especially useful if you are returning a blob url with Range Header as a FileStreamResult

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

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

Getting Invalid Content Type doing a Delete httpclient call. What am I doing wrong?

When I try to do the code below, it just results in Invalid Content Type (with error number 612).
I'm trying to delete a lead id from a static list. I can add lead ids or get the static list leads fine.
The post and get calls I make are working fine, although the post calls I make seem to require the data right on the url string (as in $"{endpointURL}/rest/v1/lists/{listID}/leads.json?id={leadID}"; If I include the id as a json object, it fails too. This might be a clue to what I'm doing wrong with the delete call.
string url = $"{endpointURL}/rest/v1/lists/{listID}/leads.json?id={leadID}";
HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
client.BaseAddress = new Uri(url);
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Authorization = new
AuthenticationHeaderValue("Bearer", _access_token);
HttpResponseMessage response = await client.DeleteAsync(url);
The response here always results in Invalid Content Type.
If I add this line before I do the deleteasync call, it gives me a different error before it even hits the deleteAsync call.
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Content-Type", "application/json");
Error is "Misused header name. Make sure request headers are used with HttpRequestMessage, response headers with HttpResponseMessage, and content headers with HttpContent objects."
Try using HttpRequestMessage in your code like this
string url = $"{endpointURL}/rest/";
HttpClient client = new HttpClient
{
BaseAddress = new Uri(url)
};
//I'm assuming you have leadID as an int parameter in the method signature
Dictionary<string, int> jsonValues = new Dictionary<string, int>();
jsonValues.Add("id", leadID);
//create an instance of an HttpRequestMessage() and pass in the api end route and HttpMethod
//along with the headers
HttpRequestMessage request = new HttpRequestMessage
(HttpMethod.Delete, $"v1/lists/{listID}") //<--I had to remove the leads.json part of the route... instead I'm going to take a leap of faith and hit this end point with the HttpMethod Delete and pass in a Id key value pair and encode it as application/json
{
Content = new StringContent(new JavaScriptSerializer().Serialize(jsonValues), Encoding.UTF8, "application/json")
};
request.Headers.Add("Bearer", _access_token);
//since we've already told the request what type of httpmethod we're using
//(in this case: HttpDelete)
//we could just use SendAsync and pass in the request as the argument
HttpResponseMessage response = await client.SendAsync(request);
The solution turned out to be a combination of a couple of suggestions.
HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
client.BaseAddress = new Uri(url);
HttpRequestMessage request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Delete, data);
// The key part was the line below
request.Content = new StringContent(string.Empty, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(_access_token))
{
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Bearer", _access_token);
}
HttpResponseMessage response = await client.SendAsync(request);
This worked for me.

Is it possible to set the Default Content-Type to "application/json;v=2.0"

Is it possible to set the Default Content-Type to "application/json;v=2.0". I say default because I'm using a HttpClient class and I use the DefaultRequestHeaders to set my proxies to default values.
I followed this example to create my headers https://stackoverflow.com/a/10679340/196526 but I also use versioning and information about versioning is saved in ContenT-Type
public class BankAccountProxy
{
public void SetToken()
{
Client = new HttpClient();
Client.BaseAddress = new Uri(System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["ApiRoute"]);
Client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Clear();
Client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Token", ApiInformations.ApiToken);
Client.DefaultRequestHeaders
.Accept
.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue($"application/json;v=2.0"));
}
public async Task<IEnumerable<BankAccount>> Get()
{
HttpResponseMessage response = await Client.GetAsync($"/api/BankAccount/");
response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
IEnumerable<BankAccount> bankAccount;
bankAccount = await response.Content.ReadAsAsync<IEnumerable<BankAccount>>();
return bankAccount;
}
}
When I run this code I get a
Exception message: The format of value 'application/json;v=2.0' is
invalid.
Because of the v=2.0 that is probably not a valid MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue.
What I want is to be sure I always send the version information in my Content-Type header value. How can I initialize it? How can I tell my code my default content type is not a quality header but a valid one.
For information here is my query perfectly working on Postman:
TL;DR
Use this code:
class Program
{
static async Task Main(string[] args)
{
try
{
var client = new HttpClient { BaseAddress = new Uri("https://contenttypev2.free.beeceptor.com") }; // interceptor
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Clear();
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Token", "SOME_TOKEN"); // simplified
var response = await client.GetJson2Async("/api/BankAccount/");
response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
var data = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync(); // simplified
Console.WriteLine(data);
}
catch (Exception e)
{
Console.WriteLine(e);
throw;
}
finally
{
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}
class Json2Content : StringContent
{
public Json2Content(string content) : this(content, Encoding.Default) { }
public Json2Content(string content, Encoding encoding) : base(content, encoding)
{
this.Headers.Clear();
this.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/json");
this.Headers.ContentType.Parameters.Add(new NameValueHeaderValue("v", "2.0"));
if (!encoding.Equals(Encoding.Default)) this.Headers.ContentType.CharSet = encoding.HeaderName;
}
}
static class Json2Extensions
{
public static Task<HttpResponseMessage> GetJson2Async(this HttpClient client, string requestUri, string content = "", Encoding encoding = default)
{
var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, requestUri) { Content = new Json2Content(content, encoding ?? Encoding.Default) };
return client.SendAsync(request);
}
}
And this is the result:
Explanation
As mentioned by carlosfigueira:
The content type is a header of the content, not of the request
So setting the Accept header like you did here:
Client.DefaultRequestHeaders
.Accept
.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue($"application/json;v=2.0"));
will not help your objective.
To simplify use of JSON v2 content type, you can use the wrapper class above as well as the extension method provided.
Note
Are you sure you want to set the Content-Type header? It is very uncommon to have content in a GET request.
If you want to signal the server that you wish to receive JSON v2 response, you should do it in the Accept header. Even the API versioning document you have referenced in the comments to the question shows that the version number could be set in the Accept header or the Content-Type header. When there is content you can still, probably, use the 'Accept' header to set the version and you can do that as a default like so:
var client = new HttpClient { BaseAddress = new Uri("https://contenttypev2.free.beeceptor.com") }; // interceptor
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Clear();
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Token", "SOME_TOKEN"); // simplified
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Clear();
var json2MediaType = new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json");
json2MediaType.Parameters.Clear();
json2MediaType.Parameters.Add(new NameValueHeaderValue("v", "2.0"));
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(json2MediaType);
var response = await client.GetAsync("/api/BankAccount/");
...
resulting with:

How can I add a HTTP Header called "Content-Type" to an HttpClient request? [duplicate]

I need to add http headers to the HttpClient before I send a request to a web service. How do I do that for an individual request (as opposed to on the HttpClient to all future requests)? I'm not sure if this is even possible.
var client = new HttpClient();
var task =
client.GetAsync("http://www.someURI.com")
.ContinueWith((taskwithmsg) =>
{
var response = taskwithmsg.Result;
var jsonTask = response.Content.ReadAsAsync<JsonObject>();
jsonTask.Wait();
var jsonObject = jsonTask.Result;
});
task.Wait();
Create a HttpRequestMessage, set the Method to GET, set your headers and then use SendAsync instead of GetAsync.
var client = new HttpClient();
var request = new HttpRequestMessage() {
RequestUri = new Uri("http://www.someURI.com"),
Method = HttpMethod.Get,
};
request.Headers.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("text/plain"));
var task = client.SendAsync(request)
.ContinueWith((taskwithmsg) =>
{
var response = taskwithmsg.Result;
var jsonTask = response.Content.ReadAsAsync<JsonObject>();
jsonTask.Wait();
var jsonObject = jsonTask.Result;
});
task.Wait();
When it can be the same header for all requests or you dispose the client after each request you can use the DefaultRequestHeaders.Add option:
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("apikey","xxxxxxxxx");
To set custom headers ON A REQUEST, build a request with the custom header before passing it to httpclient to send to http server.
eg:
HttpClient client = HttpClients.custom().build();
HttpUriRequest request = RequestBuilder.get()
.setUri(someURL)
.setHeader(HttpHeaders.CONTENT_TYPE, "application/json")
.build();
client.execute(request);
Default header is SET ON HTTPCLIENT to send on every request to the server.

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