How to call HttpClient PostAsync or SendAsync with bearer token to get XML with XML argument?

Question

The call with bearer token to get XML with XML argument is done so far with RestSharp where XElement Payload = <Access><AppID>35</AppID><UserToken>QrEil9L9S</UserToken></Access> :

 public string PostFromRest(string API_URL, string subURL, string bearerToken, XElement Payload)
 {

  var client = new RestClient(API_URL);
  var request = new RestRequest(subURL, Method.Post);
  request.AddHeader("Cache-Control", "no-cache");
  request.AddHeader("Content-Type", "application/xml");
  request.AddHeader("Accept", "application/xml");
  request.AddHeader("messageType", "REQUEST");
  request.AddHeader("Authorization", bearerToken);
  request.AddHeader("messageId", Guid.NewGuid().ToString());
  request.AddHeader("timestamp", DateTime.Now.ToString());
  request.AddXmlBody(Payload, ContentType.Xml);
  var response = client.Execute(request);
  return response.Content;
}

I need to do the same with HttpClient. I was trying:

HttpClient client = new HttpClient())
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Clear();
client.BaseAddress = new Uri(API_URL);
client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Authorization =
    new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Authorization", bearerToken);
var content1 = new FormUrlEncodedContent(
new KeyValuePair<string, string>[] {
new KeyValuePair<string, string>("Cache-Control", "no-cache"),
new KeyValuePair<string, string>("Content-Type", "application/xml"),
new KeyValuePair<string, string>("Accept", "application/xml"),
new KeyValuePair<string, string>("messageType", "REQUEST"),
new KeyValuePair<string, string>("messageId", Guid.NewGuid().ToString()),
new KeyValuePair<string, string>("timestamp", DateTime.Now.ToString())});

HttpResponseMessage response = client.PostAsync(subURL, content).Result;

But authentication is failed. I was trying to use HttpRequestMessage:

    using (var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Post, API_URL))
{
  request.Headers.Add("Cache-Control", "no-cache");
  request.Headers.Add("Content-Type", "application/xml");
  request.Headers.Add("Accept", "application/xml");
  request.Headers.Add("messageType", "REQUEST");
  request.Headers.Add("Authorization", bearerToken);
  request.Headers.Add("messageId", Guid.NewGuid().ToString());
  request.Headers.Add("timestamp", DateTime.Now.ToString());

  request.Content = new StringContent(Payload.ToString(), Encoding.UTF8, "application/xml");
  HttpResponseMessage response = client.SendAsync(request).Result;
}

But authorization is failed too. How to call HttpClient with bearer token to get XML with XML argument?

Answer 1

Here is one way to achieve the same with vanilla HttpClient:

1. Create an HttpClient instance and set its BaseAddress

var client = new HttpClient() { BaseAddress = new Uri(API_URL) };

2. Create an HttpRequestMessage and set the relative URL and the verb

var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Post, new Uri(subURL));

3. Set the request headers

• I suggest to set the standard ones first and then the custom ones

//Standard headers
request.Headers.Add("Cache-Control", "no-cache");
request.Headers.Add("Accept", "application/xml");
request.Headers.Add("Authorization", bearerToken);

//Custom headers
request.Headers.Add("messageType", "REQUEST");
request.Headers.Add("messageId", Guid.NewGuid().ToString());
request.Headers.Add("timestamp", DateTime.Now.ToString());

4. Create and set the request body

var content = new StringContent(Payload.ToString(), Encoding.UTF8, "application/xml");
request.Content = content;

5. Send the request and process the response

var response = await client.SendAsync(request);
return await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();

6. Enjoy :D