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If I wish to submit a http get request using System.Net.HttpClient there seems to be no api to add parameters, is this correct?
Is there any simple api available to build the query string that doesn't involve building a name value collection and url encoding those and then finally concatenating them?
I was hoping to use something like RestSharp's api (i.e AddParameter(..))
If I wish to submit a http get request using System.Net.HttpClient
there seems to be no api to add parameters, is this correct?
Yes.
Is there any simple api available to build the query string that
doesn't involve building a name value collection and url encoding
those and then finally concatenating them?
Sure:
var query = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(string.Empty);
query["foo"] = "bar<>&-baz";
query["bar"] = "bazinga";
string queryString = query.ToString();
will give you the expected result:
foo=bar%3c%3e%26-baz&bar=bazinga
You might also find the UriBuilder class useful:
var builder = new UriBuilder("http://example.com");
builder.Port = -1;
var query = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(builder.Query);
query["foo"] = "bar<>&-baz";
query["bar"] = "bazinga";
builder.Query = query.ToString();
string url = builder.ToString();
will give you the expected result:
http://example.com/?foo=bar%3c%3e%26-baz&bar=bazinga
that you could more than safely feed to your HttpClient.GetAsync method.
For those who do not want to include System.Web in projects that don't already use it, you can use FormUrlEncodedContent from System.Net.Http and do something like the following:
keyvaluepair version
string query;
using(var content = new FormUrlEncodedContent(new KeyValuePair<string, string>[]{
new KeyValuePair<string, string>("ham", "Glazed?"),
new KeyValuePair<string, string>("x-men", "Wolverine + Logan"),
new KeyValuePair<string, string>("Time", DateTime.UtcNow.ToString()),
})) {
query = content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result;
}
dictionary version
string query;
using(var content = new FormUrlEncodedContent(new Dictionary<string, string>()
{
{ "ham", "Glaced?"},
{ "x-men", "Wolverine + Logan"},
{ "Time", DateTime.UtcNow.ToString() },
})) {
query = content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result;
}
In a ASP.NET Core project you can use the QueryHelpers class, available in the Microsoft.AspNetCore.WebUtilities namespace for ASP.NET Core, or the .NET Standard 2.0 NuGet package for other consumers:
// using Microsoft.AspNetCore.WebUtilities;
var query = new Dictionary<string, string>
{
["foo"] = "bar",
["foo2"] = "bar2",
// ...
};
var response = await client.GetAsync(QueryHelpers.AddQueryString("/api/", query));
TL;DR: do not use accepted version as It's completely broken in relation to handling unicode characters, and never use internal API
I've actually found weird double encoding issue with the accepted solution:
So, If you're dealing with characters which need to be encoded, accepted solution leads to double encoding:
query parameters are auto encoded by using NameValueCollection indexer (and this uses UrlEncodeUnicode, not regular expected UrlEncode(!))
Then, when you call uriBuilder.Uri it creates new Uri using constructor which does encoding one more time (normal url encoding)
That cannot be avoided by doing uriBuilder.ToString() (even though this returns correct Uri which IMO is at least inconsistency, maybe a bug, but that's another question) and then using HttpClient method accepting string - client still creates Uri out of your passed string like this: new Uri(uri, UriKind.RelativeOrAbsolute)
Small, but full repro:
var builder = new UriBuilder
{
Scheme = Uri.UriSchemeHttps,
Port = -1,
Host = "127.0.0.1",
Path = "app"
};
NameValueCollection query = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(builder.Query);
query["cyrillic"] = "кирилиця";
builder.Query = query.ToString();
Console.WriteLine(builder.Query); //query with cyrillic stuff UrlEncodedUnicode, and that's not what you want
var uri = builder.Uri; // creates new Uri using constructor which does encode and messes cyrillic parameter even more
Console.WriteLine(uri);
// this is still wrong:
var stringUri = builder.ToString(); // returns more 'correct' (still `UrlEncodedUnicode`, but at least once, not twice)
new HttpClient().GetStringAsync(stringUri); // this creates Uri object out of 'stringUri' so we still end up sending double encoded cyrillic text to server. Ouch!
Output:
?cyrillic=%u043a%u0438%u0440%u0438%u043b%u0438%u0446%u044f
https://127.0.0.1/app?cyrillic=%25u043a%25u0438%25u0440%25u0438%25u043b%25u0438%25u0446%25u044f
As you may see, no matter if you do uribuilder.ToString() + httpClient.GetStringAsync(string) or uriBuilder.Uri + httpClient.GetStringAsync(Uri) you end up sending double encoded parameter
Fixed example could be:
var uri = new Uri(builder.ToString(), dontEscape: true);
new HttpClient().GetStringAsync(uri);
But this uses obsolete Uri constructor
P.S on my latest .NET on Windows Server, Uri constructor with bool doc comment says "obsolete, dontEscape is always false", but actually works as expected (skips escaping)
So It looks like another bug...
And even this is plain wrong - it send UrlEncodedUnicode to server, not just UrlEncoded what server expects
Update: one more thing is, NameValueCollection actually does UrlEncodeUnicode, which is not supposed to be used anymore and is incompatible with regular url.encode/decode (see NameValueCollection to URL Query?).
So the bottom line is: never use this hack with NameValueCollection query = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(builder.Query); as it will mess your unicode query parameters. Just build query manually and assign it to UriBuilder.Query which will do necessary encoding and then get Uri using UriBuilder.Uri.
Prime example of hurting yourself by using code which is not supposed to be used like this
You might want to check out Flurl [disclosure: I'm the author], a fluent URL builder with optional companion lib that extends it into a full-blown REST client.
var result = await "https://api.com"
// basic URL building:
.AppendPathSegment("endpoint")
.SetQueryParams(new {
api_key = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["SomeApiKey"],
max_results = 20,
q = "Don't worry, I'll get encoded!"
})
.SetQueryParams(myDictionary)
.SetQueryParam("q", "overwrite q!")
// extensions provided by Flurl.Http:
.WithOAuthBearerToken("token")
.GetJsonAsync<TResult>();
Check out the docs for more details. The full package is available on NuGet:
PM> Install-Package Flurl.Http
or just the stand-alone URL builder:
PM> Install-Package Flurl
Along the same lines as Rostov's post, if you do not want to include a reference to System.Web in your project, you can use FormDataCollection from System.Net.Http.Formatting and do something like the following:
Using System.Net.Http.Formatting.FormDataCollection
var parameters = new Dictionary<string, string>()
{
{ "ham", "Glaced?" },
{ "x-men", "Wolverine + Logan" },
{ "Time", DateTime.UtcNow.ToString() },
};
var query = new FormDataCollection(parameters).ReadAsNameValueCollection().ToString();
Since I have to reuse this few time, I came up with this class that simply help to abstract how the query string is composed.
public class UriBuilderExt
{
private NameValueCollection collection;
private UriBuilder builder;
public UriBuilderExt(string uri)
{
builder = new UriBuilder(uri);
collection = System.Web.HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(string.Empty);
}
public void AddParameter(string key, string value) {
collection.Add(key, value);
}
public Uri Uri{
get
{
builder.Query = collection.ToString();
return builder.Uri;
}
}
}
The use will be simplify to something like this:
var builder = new UriBuilderExt("http://example.com/");
builder.AddParameter("foo", "bar<>&-baz");
builder.AddParameter("bar", "second");
var uri = builder.Uri;
that will return the uri:
http://example.com/?foo=bar%3c%3e%26-baz&bar=second
Good part of accepted answer, modified to use UriBuilder.Uri.ParseQueryString() instead of HttpUtility.ParseQueryString():
var builder = new UriBuilder("http://example.com");
var query = builder.Uri.ParseQueryString();
query["foo"] = "bar<>&-baz";
query["bar"] = "bazinga";
builder.Query = query.ToString();
string url = builder.ToString();
Darin offered an interesting and clever solution, and here is something that may be another option:
public class ParameterCollection
{
private Dictionary<string, string> _parms = new Dictionary<string, string>();
public void Add(string key, string val)
{
if (_parms.ContainsKey(key))
{
throw new InvalidOperationException(string.Format("The key {0} already exists.", key));
}
_parms.Add(key, val);
}
public override string ToString()
{
var server = HttpContext.Current.Server;
var sb = new StringBuilder();
foreach (var kvp in _parms)
{
if (sb.Length > 0) { sb.Append("&"); }
sb.AppendFormat("{0}={1}",
server.UrlEncode(kvp.Key),
server.UrlEncode(kvp.Value));
}
return sb.ToString();
}
}
and so when using it, you might do this:
var parms = new ParameterCollection();
parms.Add("key", "value");
var url = ...
url += "?" + parms;
The RFC 6570 URI Template library I'm developing is capable of performing this operation. All encoding is handled for you in accordance with that RFC. At the time of this writing, a beta release is available and the only reason it's not considered a stable 1.0 release is the documentation doesn't fully meet my expectations (see issues #17, #18, #32, #43).
You could either build a query string alone:
UriTemplate template = new UriTemplate("{?params*}");
var parameters = new Dictionary<string, string>
{
{ "param1", "value1" },
{ "param2", "value2" },
};
Uri relativeUri = template.BindByName(parameters);
Or you could build a complete URI:
UriTemplate template = new UriTemplate("path/to/item{?params*}");
var parameters = new Dictionary<string, string>
{
{ "param1", "value1" },
{ "param2", "value2" },
};
Uri baseAddress = new Uri("http://www.example.com");
Uri relativeUri = template.BindByName(baseAddress, parameters);
Or simply using my Uri extension
Code
public static Uri AttachParameters(this Uri uri, NameValueCollection parameters)
{
var stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();
string str = "?";
for (int index = 0; index < parameters.Count; ++index)
{
stringBuilder.Append(str + parameters.AllKeys[index] + "=" + parameters[index]);
str = "&";
}
return new Uri(uri + stringBuilder.ToString());
}
Usage
Uri uri = new Uri("http://www.example.com/index.php").AttachParameters(new NameValueCollection
{
{"Bill", "Gates"},
{"Steve", "Jobs"}
});
Result
http://www.example.com/index.php?Bill=Gates&Steve=Jobs
To avoid double encoding issue described in taras.roshko's answer and to keep possibility to easily work with query parameters, you can use uriBuilder.Uri.ParseQueryString() instead of HttpUtility.ParseQueryString().
Thanks to "Darin Dimitrov", This is the extension methods.
public static partial class Ext
{
public static Uri GetUriWithparameters(this Uri uri,Dictionary<string,string> queryParams = null,int port = -1)
{
var builder = new UriBuilder(uri);
builder.Port = port;
if(null != queryParams && 0 < queryParams.Count)
{
var query = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(builder.Query);
foreach(var item in queryParams)
{
query[item.Key] = item.Value;
}
builder.Query = query.ToString();
}
return builder.Uri;
}
public static string GetUriWithparameters(string uri,Dictionary<string,string> queryParams = null,int port = -1)
{
var builder = new UriBuilder(uri);
builder.Port = port;
if(null != queryParams && 0 < queryParams.Count)
{
var query = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(builder.Query);
foreach(var item in queryParams)
{
query[item.Key] = item.Value;
}
builder.Query = query.ToString();
}
return builder.Uri.ToString();
}
}
HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
var uri = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("URL of Api");
var requesturi = QueryHelpers.AddQueryString(uri, "parameter_name",parameter_value);
client.BaseAddress = new Uri(requesturi);
And then you can add request headers also eg:
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("x-api-key", secretValue);
response syntax eg:
HttpResponseMessage response = client.GetAsync(requesturi).Result;
Hope it will work for you.
My answer doesn't globally differ from the accepted/other answers. I just tried to create an extension method for the Uri type, which takes variable number of parameters.
public static class UriExtensions
{
public static Uri AddParameter(this Uri url, params (string Name, string Value)[] #params)
{
if (!#params.Any())
{
return url;
}
UriBuilder uriBuilder = new(url);
NameValueCollection query = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(uriBuilder.Query);
foreach (var param in #params)
{
query[param.Name] = param.Value.Trim();
}
uriBuilder.Query = query.ToString();
return uriBuilder.Uri;
}
}
Usage example:
var uri = new Uri("http://someuri.com")
.AddParameter(
("p1.name", "p1.value"),
("p2.name", "p2.value"),
("p3.name", "p3.value"));
I couldn't find a better solution than creating a extension method to convert a Dictionary to QueryStringFormat. The solution proposed by Waleed A.K. is good as well.
Follow my solution:
Create the extension method:
public static class DictionaryExt
{
public static string ToQueryString<TKey, TValue>(this Dictionary<TKey, TValue> dictionary)
{
return ToQueryString<TKey, TValue>(dictionary, "?");
}
public static string ToQueryString<TKey, TValue>(this Dictionary<TKey, TValue> dictionary, string startupDelimiter)
{
string result = string.Empty;
foreach (var item in dictionary)
{
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(result))
result += startupDelimiter; // "?";
else
result += "&";
result += string.Format("{0}={1}", item.Key, item.Value);
}
return result;
}
}
And them:
var param = new Dictionary<string, string>
{
{ "param1", "value1" },
{ "param2", "value2" },
};
param.ToQueryString(); //By default will add (?) question mark at begining
//"?param1=value1¶m2=value2"
param.ToQueryString("&"); //Will add (&)
//"¶m1=value1¶m2=value2"
param.ToQueryString(""); //Won't add anything
//"param1=value1¶m2=value2"
Solved!!! - See last edit.
In my MVC app I make calls out to a Web API service with HMAC Authentication Filterign. My Get (GetMultipleItemsRequest) works, but my Post does not. If I turn off HMAC authentication filtering all of them work. I'm not sure why the POSTS do not work, but the GETs do.
I make the GET call from my code like this (this one works):
var productsClient = new RestClient<Role>(System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["WebApiUrl"],
"xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx", true);
var getManyResult = productsClient.GetMultipleItemsRequest("api/Role").Result;
I make the POST call from my code like this (this one only works when I turn off HMAC):
private RestClient<Profile> profileClient = new RestClient<Profile>(System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["WebApiUrl"],
"xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx", true);
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult ProfileImport(IEnumerable<HttpPostedFileBase> files)
{
//...
var postResult = profileClient.PostRequest("api/Profile", newProfile).Result;
}
My RestClient builds like this:
public class RestClient<T> where T : class
{
//...
private void SetupClient(HttpClient client, string methodName, string apiUrl, T content = null)
{
const string secretTokenName = "SecretToken";
client.BaseAddress = new Uri(_baseAddress);
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Clear();
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));
if (_hmacSecret)
{
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Date = DateTime.UtcNow;
var datePart = client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Date.Value.UtcDateTime.ToString(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
var fullUri = _baseAddress + apiUrl;
var contentMD5 = "";
if (content != null)
{
var json = new JavaScriptSerializer().Serialize(content);
contentMD5 = Hashing.GetHashMD5OfString(json); // <--- Javascript serialized version is hashed
}
var messageRepresentation =
methodName + "\n" +
contentMD5 + "\n" +
datePart + "\n" +
fullUri;
var sharedSecretValue = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings[_sharedSecretName];
var hmac = Hashing.GetHashHMACSHA256OfString(messageRepresentation, sharedSecretValue);
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add(secretTokenName, hmac);
}
else if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(_sharedSecretName))
{
var sharedSecretValue = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings[_sharedSecretName];
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add(secretTokenName, sharedSecretValue);
}
}
public async Task<T[]> GetMultipleItemsRequest(string apiUrl)
{
T[] result = null;
try
{
using (var client = new HttpClient())
{
SetupClient(client, "GET", apiUrl);
var response = await client.GetAsync(apiUrl).ConfigureAwait(false);
response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().ContinueWith((Task<string> x) =>
{
if (x.IsFaulted)
throw x.Exception;
result = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<T[]>(x.Result);
});
}
}
catch (HttpRequestException exception)
{
if (exception.Message.Contains("401 (Unauthorized)"))
{
}
else if (exception.Message.Contains("403 (Forbidden)"))
{
}
}
catch (Exception)
{
}
return result;
}
public async Task<T> PostRequest(string apiUrl, T postObject)
{
T result = null;
try
{
using (var client = new HttpClient())
{
SetupClient(client, "POST", apiUrl, postObject);
var response = await client.PostAsync(apiUrl, postObject, new JsonMediaTypeFormatter()).ConfigureAwait(false); //<--- not javascript formatted
response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().ContinueWith((Task<string> x) =>
{
if (x.IsFaulted)
throw x.Exception;
result = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<T>(x.Result);
});
}
}
catch (HttpRequestException exception)
{
if (exception.Message.Contains("401 (Unauthorized)"))
{
}
else if (exception.Message.Contains("403 (Forbidden)"))
{
}
}
catch (Exception)
{
}
return result;
}
//...
}
My Web API Controller is defined like this:
[SecretAuthenticationFilter(SharedSecretName = "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx", HmacSecret = true)]
public class ProfileController : ApiController
{
[HttpPost]
[ResponseType(typeof(Profile))]
public IHttpActionResult PostProfile(Profile Profile)
{
if (!ModelState.IsValid)
{
return BadRequest(ModelState);
}
GuidValue = Guid.NewGuid();
Resource res = new Resource();
res.ResourceId = GuidValue;
var data23 = Resourceservices.Insert(res);
Profile.ProfileId = data23.ResourceId;
_profileservices.Insert(Profile);
return CreatedAtRoute("DefaultApi", new { id = Profile.ProfileId }, Profile);
}
}
Here is some of what SecretAuthenticationFilter does:
//now try to read the content as string
string content = actionContext.Request.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result;
var contentMD5 = content == "" ? "" : Hashing.GetHashMD5OfString(content); //<-- Hashing the non-JavaScriptSerialized
var datePart = "";
var requestDate = DateTime.Now.AddDays(-2);
if (actionContext.Request.Headers.Date != null)
{
requestDate = actionContext.Request.Headers.Date.Value.UtcDateTime;
datePart = requestDate.ToString(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
}
var methodName = actionContext.Request.Method.Method;
var fullUri = actionContext.Request.RequestUri.ToString();
var messageRepresentation =
methodName + "\n" +
contentMD5 + "\n" +
datePart + "\n" +
fullUri;
var expectedValue = Hashing.GetHashHMACSHA256OfString(messageRepresentation, sharedSecretValue);
// Are the hmacs the same, and have we received it within +/- 5 mins (sending and
// receiving servers may not have exactly the same time)
if (messageSecretValue == expectedValue
&& requestDate > DateTime.UtcNow.AddMinutes(-5)
&& requestDate < DateTime.UtcNow.AddMinutes(5))
goodRequest = true;
Any idea why HMAC doesn't work for the POST?
EDIT:
When SecretAuthenticationFilter tries to compare the HMAC sent, with what it thinks the HMAC should be they don't match. The reason is the MD5Hash of the content doesn't match the MD5Hash of the received content. The RestClient hashes the content using a JavaScriptSerializer.Serialized version of the content, but then the PostRequest passes the object as JsonMediaTypeFormatted.
These two types don't get formatted the same. For instance, the JavaScriptSerializer give's us dates like this:
\"EnteredDate\":\"\/Date(1434642998639)\/\"
The passed content has dates like this:
\"EnteredDate\":\"2015-06-18T11:56:38.6390407-04:00\"
I guess I need the hash to use the same data that's passed, so the Filter on the other end can confirm it correctly. Thoughts?
EDIT:
Found the answer, I needed to change the SetupClient code from using this line:
var json = new JavaScriptSerializer().Serialize(content);
contentMD5 = Hashing.GetHashMD5OfString(json);
To using this:
var json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(content);
contentMD5 = Hashing.GetHashMD5OfString(json);
Now the sent content (formatted via JSON) will match the hashed content.
I was not the person who wrote this code originally. :)
Found the answer, I needed to change the SetupClient code from using this line:
var json = new JavaScriptSerializer().Serialize(content);
contentMD5 = Hashing.GetHashMD5OfString(json);
To using this:
var json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(content);
contentMD5 = Hashing.GetHashMD5OfString(json);
Now the content used for the hash will be formatted as JSON and will match the sent content (which is also formatted via JSON).
I am trying to build a generic function that will run a simple HTTP Get request using various possible URL Params.
I want to be able to receive a flexible number of strings as a parameter and add them one by one as a URL parameter in the request.
Here's my code so far, I am trying to build a List but for some reason I just can't muster a workign solution..
public static void GetRequest(List<string> lParams)
{
lParams.Add(header1);
string myURL = "";
HttpWebRequest WebReq = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(string.Format(myURL));
WebReq.Method = "GET";
HttpWebResponse WebResp = (HttpWebResponse)WebReq.GetResponse();
Stream Answer = WebResp.GetResponseStream();
StreamReader _Answer = new StreamReader(Answer);
sContent = _Answer.ReadToEnd();
}
Thanks!
I think you need this:
private static string CreateUrl(string baseUrl, Dictionary<string, string> args)
{
var sb = new StringBuilder(baseUrl);
var f = true;
foreach (var arg in args)
{
sb.Append(f ? '?' : '&');
sb.Append(WebUtility.UrlEncode(arg.Key) + '=' + WebUtility.UrlEncode(arg.Value));
f = false;
}
return sb.ToString();
}
Not so complex version with comments:
private static string CreateUrl(string baseUrl, Dictionary<string, string> parameters)
{
var stringBuilder = new StringBuilder(baseUrl);
var firstTime = true;
// Going through all the parameters
foreach (var arg in parameters)
{
if (firstTime)
{
stringBuilder.Append('?'); // first parameter is appended with a ? - www.example.com/index.html?abc=3
firstTime = false; // All other following parameters should be added with a &
}
else
{
stringBuilder.Append('&'); // all other parameters are appended with a & - www.example.com/index.html?abc=3&abcd=4&abcde=8
}
var key = WebUtility.UrlEncode(arg.Key); // Converting characters which are not allowed in the url to escaped values
var value = WebUtility.UrlEncode(arg.Value); // Same goes for the value
stringBuilder.Append(key + '=' + value); // Writing the parameter in the format key=value
}
return stringBuilder.ToString(); // Returning the url with parameters
}
I'm trying to cache some data returned as Json, problem is my cache does not seem to be caching the data and I do not know why, can anyone please have a look at my code and let a newbie know where he have gone wrong.
public class GetTravelAdvice : ITravelAdvice
{
private static readonly string Key = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["FCO_URL"];
public async Task<IEnumerable<TravelAdvice>> GetFcoTravelAdvice(string country)
{
using (var ta = new HttpClient())
{
string cacheDataTravelAdvice = "FCOLocation" + RegexHelpers.RegexRemoveAllInvalidCharactersKeepWhiteSpace(country.ToLower());
ObjectCache travelCache = MemoryCache.Default;
var objectInCache = travelCache.Get(cacheDataTravelAdvice) as IEnumerable<TravelAdvice>;
if (objectInCache != null)
return objectInCache.AsEnumerable();
string ensureCountryStringIsValid = RegexHelpers.RegexRemoveAllInvalidCharactersKeepWhiteSpace(country);
var url = await ta.GetStringAsync(string.Format("{0}{1}{2}", Key, HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(ensureCountryStringIsValid), ".json")).ConfigureAwait(false);
var policy = new CacheItemPolicy { AbsoluteExpiration = DateTime.Now.AddMinutes(15) };
travelCache.Add(cacheDataTravelAdvice, url, policy);
return new[] { JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<TravelAdvice>(url) };
}
}
}
Thanks for any help
On this line the url variable is a string instance, right?
var url = await ta.GetStringAsync(string.Format("{0}{1}{2}", Key, HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(ensureCountryStringIsValid), ".json")).ConfigureAwait(false);
This is what you have stored in the cache: a string value:
travelCache.Add(cacheDataTravelAdvice, url, policy);
and here:
var objectInCache = travelCache.Get(cacheDataTravelAdvice) as IEnumerable<TravelAdvice>;
you are attempting to cast it to IEnumerable<TravelAdvice>. It's normal that if you have stored a string in your cache you cannot expect to get an IEnumerable<TravelAdvice> out from it.
So you need to read it as string:
string objectInCache = travelCache.Get(cacheDataTravelAdvice) as string;
and then deserialize it to the underlying object:
if (objectInCache != null)
{
return new[] { JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<TravelAdvice>(objectInCache) };
}
The other possibility is to directly store your IEnumerable<TravelAdvice> instance into the cache:
var url = await ta.GetStringAsync(string.Format("{0}{1}{2}", Key, HttpUtility.HtmlEncode(ensureCountryStringIsValid), ".json")).ConfigureAwait(false);
var data = new[] { JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<TravelAdvice>(url) };
travelCache.Add(cacheDataTravelAdvice, data, policy);
return data;
If I wish to submit a http get request using System.Net.HttpClient there seems to be no api to add parameters, is this correct?
Is there any simple api available to build the query string that doesn't involve building a name value collection and url encoding those and then finally concatenating them?
I was hoping to use something like RestSharp's api (i.e AddParameter(..))
If I wish to submit a http get request using System.Net.HttpClient
there seems to be no api to add parameters, is this correct?
Yes.
Is there any simple api available to build the query string that
doesn't involve building a name value collection and url encoding
those and then finally concatenating them?
Sure:
var query = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(string.Empty);
query["foo"] = "bar<>&-baz";
query["bar"] = "bazinga";
string queryString = query.ToString();
will give you the expected result:
foo=bar%3c%3e%26-baz&bar=bazinga
You might also find the UriBuilder class useful:
var builder = new UriBuilder("http://example.com");
builder.Port = -1;
var query = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(builder.Query);
query["foo"] = "bar<>&-baz";
query["bar"] = "bazinga";
builder.Query = query.ToString();
string url = builder.ToString();
will give you the expected result:
http://example.com/?foo=bar%3c%3e%26-baz&bar=bazinga
that you could more than safely feed to your HttpClient.GetAsync method.
For those who do not want to include System.Web in projects that don't already use it, you can use FormUrlEncodedContent from System.Net.Http and do something like the following:
keyvaluepair version
string query;
using(var content = new FormUrlEncodedContent(new KeyValuePair<string, string>[]{
new KeyValuePair<string, string>("ham", "Glazed?"),
new KeyValuePair<string, string>("x-men", "Wolverine + Logan"),
new KeyValuePair<string, string>("Time", DateTime.UtcNow.ToString()),
})) {
query = content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result;
}
dictionary version
string query;
using(var content = new FormUrlEncodedContent(new Dictionary<string, string>()
{
{ "ham", "Glaced?"},
{ "x-men", "Wolverine + Logan"},
{ "Time", DateTime.UtcNow.ToString() },
})) {
query = content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result;
}
In a ASP.NET Core project you can use the QueryHelpers class, available in the Microsoft.AspNetCore.WebUtilities namespace for ASP.NET Core, or the .NET Standard 2.0 NuGet package for other consumers:
// using Microsoft.AspNetCore.WebUtilities;
var query = new Dictionary<string, string>
{
["foo"] = "bar",
["foo2"] = "bar2",
// ...
};
var response = await client.GetAsync(QueryHelpers.AddQueryString("/api/", query));
TL;DR: do not use accepted version as It's completely broken in relation to handling unicode characters, and never use internal API
I've actually found weird double encoding issue with the accepted solution:
So, If you're dealing with characters which need to be encoded, accepted solution leads to double encoding:
query parameters are auto encoded by using NameValueCollection indexer (and this uses UrlEncodeUnicode, not regular expected UrlEncode(!))
Then, when you call uriBuilder.Uri it creates new Uri using constructor which does encoding one more time (normal url encoding)
That cannot be avoided by doing uriBuilder.ToString() (even though this returns correct Uri which IMO is at least inconsistency, maybe a bug, but that's another question) and then using HttpClient method accepting string - client still creates Uri out of your passed string like this: new Uri(uri, UriKind.RelativeOrAbsolute)
Small, but full repro:
var builder = new UriBuilder
{
Scheme = Uri.UriSchemeHttps,
Port = -1,
Host = "127.0.0.1",
Path = "app"
};
NameValueCollection query = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(builder.Query);
query["cyrillic"] = "кирилиця";
builder.Query = query.ToString();
Console.WriteLine(builder.Query); //query with cyrillic stuff UrlEncodedUnicode, and that's not what you want
var uri = builder.Uri; // creates new Uri using constructor which does encode and messes cyrillic parameter even more
Console.WriteLine(uri);
// this is still wrong:
var stringUri = builder.ToString(); // returns more 'correct' (still `UrlEncodedUnicode`, but at least once, not twice)
new HttpClient().GetStringAsync(stringUri); // this creates Uri object out of 'stringUri' so we still end up sending double encoded cyrillic text to server. Ouch!
Output:
?cyrillic=%u043a%u0438%u0440%u0438%u043b%u0438%u0446%u044f
https://127.0.0.1/app?cyrillic=%25u043a%25u0438%25u0440%25u0438%25u043b%25u0438%25u0446%25u044f
As you may see, no matter if you do uribuilder.ToString() + httpClient.GetStringAsync(string) or uriBuilder.Uri + httpClient.GetStringAsync(Uri) you end up sending double encoded parameter
Fixed example could be:
var uri = new Uri(builder.ToString(), dontEscape: true);
new HttpClient().GetStringAsync(uri);
But this uses obsolete Uri constructor
P.S on my latest .NET on Windows Server, Uri constructor with bool doc comment says "obsolete, dontEscape is always false", but actually works as expected (skips escaping)
So It looks like another bug...
And even this is plain wrong - it send UrlEncodedUnicode to server, not just UrlEncoded what server expects
Update: one more thing is, NameValueCollection actually does UrlEncodeUnicode, which is not supposed to be used anymore and is incompatible with regular url.encode/decode (see NameValueCollection to URL Query?).
So the bottom line is: never use this hack with NameValueCollection query = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(builder.Query); as it will mess your unicode query parameters. Just build query manually and assign it to UriBuilder.Query which will do necessary encoding and then get Uri using UriBuilder.Uri.
Prime example of hurting yourself by using code which is not supposed to be used like this
You might want to check out Flurl [disclosure: I'm the author], a fluent URL builder with optional companion lib that extends it into a full-blown REST client.
var result = await "https://api.com"
// basic URL building:
.AppendPathSegment("endpoint")
.SetQueryParams(new {
api_key = ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["SomeApiKey"],
max_results = 20,
q = "Don't worry, I'll get encoded!"
})
.SetQueryParams(myDictionary)
.SetQueryParam("q", "overwrite q!")
// extensions provided by Flurl.Http:
.WithOAuthBearerToken("token")
.GetJsonAsync<TResult>();
Check out the docs for more details. The full package is available on NuGet:
PM> Install-Package Flurl.Http
or just the stand-alone URL builder:
PM> Install-Package Flurl
Along the same lines as Rostov's post, if you do not want to include a reference to System.Web in your project, you can use FormDataCollection from System.Net.Http.Formatting and do something like the following:
Using System.Net.Http.Formatting.FormDataCollection
var parameters = new Dictionary<string, string>()
{
{ "ham", "Glaced?" },
{ "x-men", "Wolverine + Logan" },
{ "Time", DateTime.UtcNow.ToString() },
};
var query = new FormDataCollection(parameters).ReadAsNameValueCollection().ToString();
Since I have to reuse this few time, I came up with this class that simply help to abstract how the query string is composed.
public class UriBuilderExt
{
private NameValueCollection collection;
private UriBuilder builder;
public UriBuilderExt(string uri)
{
builder = new UriBuilder(uri);
collection = System.Web.HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(string.Empty);
}
public void AddParameter(string key, string value) {
collection.Add(key, value);
}
public Uri Uri{
get
{
builder.Query = collection.ToString();
return builder.Uri;
}
}
}
The use will be simplify to something like this:
var builder = new UriBuilderExt("http://example.com/");
builder.AddParameter("foo", "bar<>&-baz");
builder.AddParameter("bar", "second");
var uri = builder.Uri;
that will return the uri:
http://example.com/?foo=bar%3c%3e%26-baz&bar=second
Good part of accepted answer, modified to use UriBuilder.Uri.ParseQueryString() instead of HttpUtility.ParseQueryString():
var builder = new UriBuilder("http://example.com");
var query = builder.Uri.ParseQueryString();
query["foo"] = "bar<>&-baz";
query["bar"] = "bazinga";
builder.Query = query.ToString();
string url = builder.ToString();
Darin offered an interesting and clever solution, and here is something that may be another option:
public class ParameterCollection
{
private Dictionary<string, string> _parms = new Dictionary<string, string>();
public void Add(string key, string val)
{
if (_parms.ContainsKey(key))
{
throw new InvalidOperationException(string.Format("The key {0} already exists.", key));
}
_parms.Add(key, val);
}
public override string ToString()
{
var server = HttpContext.Current.Server;
var sb = new StringBuilder();
foreach (var kvp in _parms)
{
if (sb.Length > 0) { sb.Append("&"); }
sb.AppendFormat("{0}={1}",
server.UrlEncode(kvp.Key),
server.UrlEncode(kvp.Value));
}
return sb.ToString();
}
}
and so when using it, you might do this:
var parms = new ParameterCollection();
parms.Add("key", "value");
var url = ...
url += "?" + parms;
The RFC 6570 URI Template library I'm developing is capable of performing this operation. All encoding is handled for you in accordance with that RFC. At the time of this writing, a beta release is available and the only reason it's not considered a stable 1.0 release is the documentation doesn't fully meet my expectations (see issues #17, #18, #32, #43).
You could either build a query string alone:
UriTemplate template = new UriTemplate("{?params*}");
var parameters = new Dictionary<string, string>
{
{ "param1", "value1" },
{ "param2", "value2" },
};
Uri relativeUri = template.BindByName(parameters);
Or you could build a complete URI:
UriTemplate template = new UriTemplate("path/to/item{?params*}");
var parameters = new Dictionary<string, string>
{
{ "param1", "value1" },
{ "param2", "value2" },
};
Uri baseAddress = new Uri("http://www.example.com");
Uri relativeUri = template.BindByName(baseAddress, parameters);
Or simply using my Uri extension
Code
public static Uri AttachParameters(this Uri uri, NameValueCollection parameters)
{
var stringBuilder = new StringBuilder();
string str = "?";
for (int index = 0; index < parameters.Count; ++index)
{
stringBuilder.Append(str + parameters.AllKeys[index] + "=" + parameters[index]);
str = "&";
}
return new Uri(uri + stringBuilder.ToString());
}
Usage
Uri uri = new Uri("http://www.example.com/index.php").AttachParameters(new NameValueCollection
{
{"Bill", "Gates"},
{"Steve", "Jobs"}
});
Result
http://www.example.com/index.php?Bill=Gates&Steve=Jobs
To avoid double encoding issue described in taras.roshko's answer and to keep possibility to easily work with query parameters, you can use uriBuilder.Uri.ParseQueryString() instead of HttpUtility.ParseQueryString().
Thanks to "Darin Dimitrov", This is the extension methods.
public static partial class Ext
{
public static Uri GetUriWithparameters(this Uri uri,Dictionary<string,string> queryParams = null,int port = -1)
{
var builder = new UriBuilder(uri);
builder.Port = port;
if(null != queryParams && 0 < queryParams.Count)
{
var query = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(builder.Query);
foreach(var item in queryParams)
{
query[item.Key] = item.Value;
}
builder.Query = query.ToString();
}
return builder.Uri;
}
public static string GetUriWithparameters(string uri,Dictionary<string,string> queryParams = null,int port = -1)
{
var builder = new UriBuilder(uri);
builder.Port = port;
if(null != queryParams && 0 < queryParams.Count)
{
var query = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(builder.Query);
foreach(var item in queryParams)
{
query[item.Key] = item.Value;
}
builder.Query = query.ToString();
}
return builder.Uri.ToString();
}
}
HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
var uri = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("URL of Api");
var requesturi = QueryHelpers.AddQueryString(uri, "parameter_name",parameter_value);
client.BaseAddress = new Uri(requesturi);
And then you can add request headers also eg:
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("x-api-key", secretValue);
response syntax eg:
HttpResponseMessage response = client.GetAsync(requesturi).Result;
Hope it will work for you.
My answer doesn't globally differ from the accepted/other answers. I just tried to create an extension method for the Uri type, which takes variable number of parameters.
public static class UriExtensions
{
public static Uri AddParameter(this Uri url, params (string Name, string Value)[] #params)
{
if (!#params.Any())
{
return url;
}
UriBuilder uriBuilder = new(url);
NameValueCollection query = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(uriBuilder.Query);
foreach (var param in #params)
{
query[param.Name] = param.Value.Trim();
}
uriBuilder.Query = query.ToString();
return uriBuilder.Uri;
}
}
Usage example:
var uri = new Uri("http://someuri.com")
.AddParameter(
("p1.name", "p1.value"),
("p2.name", "p2.value"),
("p3.name", "p3.value"));
I couldn't find a better solution than creating a extension method to convert a Dictionary to QueryStringFormat. The solution proposed by Waleed A.K. is good as well.
Follow my solution:
Create the extension method:
public static class DictionaryExt
{
public static string ToQueryString<TKey, TValue>(this Dictionary<TKey, TValue> dictionary)
{
return ToQueryString<TKey, TValue>(dictionary, "?");
}
public static string ToQueryString<TKey, TValue>(this Dictionary<TKey, TValue> dictionary, string startupDelimiter)
{
string result = string.Empty;
foreach (var item in dictionary)
{
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(result))
result += startupDelimiter; // "?";
else
result += "&";
result += string.Format("{0}={1}", item.Key, item.Value);
}
return result;
}
}
And them:
var param = new Dictionary<string, string>
{
{ "param1", "value1" },
{ "param2", "value2" },
};
param.ToQueryString(); //By default will add (?) question mark at begining
//"?param1=value1¶m2=value2"
param.ToQueryString("&"); //Will add (&)
//"¶m1=value1¶m2=value2"
param.ToQueryString(""); //Won't add anything
//"param1=value1¶m2=value2"