Post byte array to Web API server using HttpClient

Question

I want to post this data to Web API server:

public sealed class SomePostRequest
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public byte[] Content { get; set; }
}
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Answer 1

WebAPI v2.1 and beyond supports BSON (Binary JSON) out of the box, and even has a MediaTypeFormatter included for it. This means you can post your entire message in binary format.

If you want to use it, you'll need to set it in WebApiConfig:

public static class WebApiConfig
{
    public static void Register(HttpConfiguration config)
    {
        config.Formatters.Add(new BsonMediaTypeFormatter());
    }
}

Now, you an use the same BsonMediaTypeFormatter at the client side to serialize your request:

public async Task SendRequestAsync()
{
    var client = new HttpClient
    {
        BaseAddress = new Uri("http://www.yourserviceaddress.com");
    };

    // Set the Accept header for BSON.
    client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Clear();
    client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(
            new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/bson"));

    var request = new SomePostRequest
    {
        Id = 20,
        Content = new byte[] { 2, 5, 7, 10 }
    };

    // POST using the BSON formatter.
    MediaTypeFormatter bsonFormatter = new BsonMediaTypeFormatter();
    var result = await client.PostAsync("api/SomeData/Incoming", request, bsonFormatter);

    result.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
}

Or, you can use Json.NET to serialize your class to BSON. Then, specify you want to use "application/bson" as your "Content-Type":

public async Task SendRequestAsync()
{   
    using (var stream = new MemoryStream())
    using (var bson = new BsonWriter(stream))
    {
        var jsonSerializer = new JsonSerializer();

        var request = new SomePostRequest
        {
            Id = 20,
            Content = new byte[] { 2, 5, 7, 10 }
        };

        jsonSerializer.Serialize(bson, request);

        var client = new HttpClient
        {
            BaseAddress = new Uri("http://www.yourservicelocation.com")
        };

        client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Clear();
        client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(
                new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/bson"));

        var byteArrayContent = new ByteArrayContent(stream.ToArray());
        byteArrayContent.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/bson");

        var result = await client.PostAsync(
                "api/SomeData/Incoming", byteArrayContent);

        result.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
    }
}