How to use System.Net.HttpClient to post a complex type?

Question

I have a custom complex type that I want to work with using Web API.

public class Widget
{
    public int ID { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set;         


        

Answer 1

In case someone like me didn't really understand what all above are talking about, I give an easy example which is working for me. If you have a web api which url is "http://somesite.com/verifyAddress", it is a post method and it need you to pass it an address object. You want to call this api in your code. Here what you can do.

    public Address verifyAddress(Address address)
    {
        this.client = new HttpClient();
        client.BaseAddress = new Uri("http://somesite.com/");
        client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));
        var urlParm = URL + "verifyAddress";
        response = client.PostAsJsonAsync(urlParm,address).Result;
        var dataObjects = response.IsSuccessStatusCode ? response.Content.ReadAsAsync<Address>().Result : null;
        return dataObjects;
    }

Answer 2

Make a service call like this:

public async void SaveActivationCode(ActivationCodes objAC)
{
    var client = new HttpClient();
    client.BaseAddress = new Uri(baseAddress);
    HttpResponseMessage response = await client.PutAsJsonAsync(serviceAddress + "/SaveActivationCode" + "?apiKey=445-65-1216", objAC);
} 

And Service method like this:

public HttpResponseMessage PutSaveActivationCode(ActivationCodes objAC)
{
}

PutAsJsonAsync takes care of Serialization and deserialization over the network

Answer 3

The generic HttpRequestMessage<T> has been removed. This :

new HttpRequestMessage<Widget>(widget)

will no longer work.

Instead, from this post, the ASP.NET team has included some new calls to support this functionality:

HttpClient.PostAsJsonAsync<T>(T value) sends “application/json”
HttpClient.PostAsXmlAsync<T>(T value) sends “application/xml”

So, the new code (from dunston) becomes:

Widget widget = new Widget()
widget.Name = "test"
widget.Price = 1;

HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
client.BaseAddress = new Uri("http://localhost:44268");
client.PostAsJsonAsync("api/test", widget)
    .ContinueWith((postTask) => postTask.Result.EnsureSuccessStatusCode() );