How to read web api response with HttpClient c#

Question

User264732274 posted

i am fairly new in web api. i have developed small web api which has few action and return my custom class called Response.

Response class look like

public class Response
{
    bool IsSuccess=false;
    string Message;
    object ResponseData;

    public Response(bool status, string message, object data)
    {
        IsSuccess = status;
        Message = message;
        ResponseData = data;
    }
}

my web api with few actions

[RoutePrefix("api/customer")]
public class CustomerController : ApiController
{
    static readonly ICustomerRepository repository = new CustomerRepository();

    [HttpGet, Route("GetAll")]
    public Response GetAllCustomers()
    {
        return new Response(true, "SUCCESS", repository.GetAll());
    }

    [HttpGet, Route("GetByID/{customerID}")]
    public Response GetCustomer(string customerID)
    {
        Customer customer = repository.Get(customerID);
        if (customer == null)
        {
            throw new HttpResponseException(HttpStatusCode.NotFound);
        }
        return new Response(true, "SUCCESS", customer);
        //return Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK, response);
    }

    [HttpGet, Route("GetByCountryName/{country}")]
    public IEnumerable<Customer> GetCustomersByCountry(string country)
    {
        return repository.GetAll().Where(
            c => string.Equals(c.Country, country, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase));
    }
}

now where i stuck is that i do not know how to read response data return from web api actions and extract json from my response class. after getting json how could i

deserialize

that json to customer class.

this way i am calling my web api function.

private void btnLoad_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
    client.BaseAddress = new Uri("http://localhost:8010/");
    // Add an Accept header for JSON format.  
    //client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));
    // List all Names.  
    HttpResponseMessage response = client.GetAsync("api/customer/GetAll").Result;  // Blocking call!  
    if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Request Message Information:- \n\n" + response.RequestMessage + "\n");
        Console.WriteLine("Response Message Header \n\n" + response.Content.Headers + "\n");
    }
    else
    {
        Console.WriteLine("{0} ({1})", (int)response.StatusCode, response.ReasonPhrase);
    }
    Console.ReadLine();   
}

just guide me sample code

1) how to get response class which web api action returns at client side

2) how could i extract json from response class

3) how to deserialize the json to customer class at client side

thanks

Answer 1

User-1404113929 posted

hi,

please find bellow code it will helpfull for you.

  public ActionResult Index()
        {
            HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
            
            ServicePointManager.ServerCertificateValidationCallback = (sender, cert, chain, sslPolicyErrors) => true;
            HttpWebRequest request = this.GetRequest("http://localhost:50250/api/Instance");
            WebResponse webResponse = request.GetResponse();
            var responseText = new StreamReader(webResponse.GetResponseStream()).ReadToEnd();
            return View();
        }
        private HttpWebRequest GetRequest(string url, string httpMethod = "GET", bool allowAutoRedirect = true)
        {
            Uri uri = new Uri(url);
            HttpWebRequest request = HttpWebRequest.Create(url) as HttpWebRequest;
            request.UserAgent = @"Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; WOW64; Trident/7.0; rv:11.0) like Gecko";
          
            request.Timeout = Convert.ToInt32(new TimeSpan(0, 5, 0).TotalMilliseconds);
                request.Method = httpMethod;
            return request;
        }

Thanks,

Murali

Answer 2

User264732274 posted

i want to use HttpClient instead of HttpWebRequest  class to call web api action.

Answer 3

User36583972 posted

Hi sudip_inn,

You can try the following code.

         using (var client = new System.Net.Http.HttpClient())
            {
                // HTTP POST
                client.BaseAddress = new Uri("baseUrl");
                client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));
                var response =  client.GetAsync("/api/Customer/GetAll").Result;
                string res = "";
                using (HttpContent content = response.Content)
                {
                    // ... Read the string.
                    Task<string> result =  content.ReadAsStringAsync();
                    res = result.Result;
                }
          }

Best Regards,

Yohann Lu