OData client obsolete credentials property in version 8.x

Question

I read the change log for Microsoft.OData.Client 8.x. There is a statement "Obsolete Credentials property dropped from DataServiceContext class. The recommended way to configure credentials is through HttpClientHandler that can be provided using IHttpClientFactory." https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/odata/changelog/odatalib-8x

I used to initialize Microsoft.OData.Client.DataServiceContext container this way:

Container _dataContext = new Container(new Uri(url))
{
    Credentials = CredentialCache.DefaultNetworkCredentials
};

I use Unchase Connected Service to consume OData. The initialization with credentials is no longer supported. Do you have any experience setting the credentials in a new recommended way?

Answer 1

After discussion with our team, we have found the solution by implementing a custom HTTP client factory. HttpClientHandler allows you to set the Credentials.

public class DataContextFactory
{
    public static Container CreateContainer(string uri)
    {
        var container = new Container(new Uri(uri))
        {
            HttpClientFactory = new CustomHttpClientFactory()
        };
        return container;
    }
}

The code of the custom factory is below...

public class CustomHttpClientFactory : IHttpClientFactory
{
    public HttpClient CreateClient(string name)
    {
        return CreateHttpClient();
    }
    
    public static HttpClient CreateHttpClient()
    {
        var handler = new HttpClientHandler
        {
            Credentials = CredentialCache.DefaultNetworkCredentials
        };
        return new HttpClient(handler);
    }
}

Finally, the usage...

public class ODataProvider
{
    private static readonly string uri = "http://...../odata";
    private static readonly Container _container = DataContextFactory.CreateContainer(uri);
    
    public static List<Gen01Record> GetSifRecords(string runNumber)
    {
        if (!runNumber.IsNumeric()) return [];
    
        var run = int.Parse(runNumber);
        var records = _container.Communicator.GetSifInformationByRunNumber(run).GetAllPages().Select(x => x.Records).Single().ToList();
        return records;
    }
}