How to get HttpRequestMessage data

Question

I have an MVC API controller with the following action.

I don't understand how to read the actual data/body of the Message?

[HttpPost]
public void Confirmation(HttpRequestMessage request)
{
    var content = request.Content;
}

I see all the headers and the content length, but where is the data? — user1615362, Jul 31 '13 at 13:23
You can check multiple examples here: http://www.codingfusion.com/Post/How-to-Get-HttpRequestMessage-Data-in-NET-MVC — MaxPayne, Aug 02 '23 at 11:15

Mansfield · Accepted Answer · 2018-04-27T16:30:32.893

93

From this answer:

[HttpPost]
public void Confirmation(HttpRequestMessage request)
{
    var content = request.Content;
    string jsonContent = content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result;
}

Note: As seen in the comments, this code could cause a deadlock and should not be used. See this blog post for more detail.

edited Apr 27 '18 at 16:30

answered Jul 31 '13 at 13:28

Mansfield

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2

From developer point of view, using aync may not be a better option in case if you want to debug or wait till the operation is complete to view data. – Kurkula Mar 08 '17 at 00:16
3

People, please read @ToddMenier's comment: DO NOT use this code in production. It's appeared in our code and has deadlocked. – makhdumi Dec 22 '17 at 18:15
4

Details about why this can deadlock: http://blog.stephencleary.com/2012/07/dont-block-on-async-code.html – Thomas Schreiter Apr 27 '18 at 15:48
@ToddMenier no probably about it. Fact and guaranteed. – Jesse C. Slicer Jul 31 '19 at 15:20
1

This is the wrong solution. Look at @Zebing Lin's answer – Miro J. Oct 17 '19 at 16:46
1

So how should this answer be edited to not cause a deadlock? Please update the answer instead of refering the reader to an external site. – Björn Larsson Mar 30 '22 at 09:05
1

@BjörnLarsson No deadlock: `var contentTask = content.ReadAsStringAsync(); Task.WaitAll(contentTask); var content = contentTask.Result;` – codeMonkey May 05 '22 at 21:54

score 31 · Answer 2 · edited May 28 '21 at 17:23

31

using System.IO;

string requestFromPost;
using( StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(HttpContext.Current.Request.InputStream) )
{
    reader.BaseStream.Position = 0;
    requestFromPost = reader.ReadToEnd();
}

edited May 28 '21 at 17:23

Lee Taylor

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answered Jul 27 '15 at 02:44

Zebing Lin

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Request.Content is a stream. Depending on when precisely your code ran, the stream may have already been consumed. – stannius May 10 '16 at 18:07
2

This works for MVC, while accepted answer for Web Api only – Sel Dec 06 '16 at 09:02
The BaseStream.Position = 0 clued me into the fact that if the content is eaten by the framework to fill in a parameter for the HttpPost method, that the stream might be reset. Which it was. Thank you. – Rangoric Apr 16 '18 at 20:49
This worked for me as well, should be the accepted answer. – John Spax Oct 04 '18 at 07:06

Khanh TO · Answer 3 · 2015-05-12T13:53:26.680

15

I suggest that you should not do it like this. Action methods should be designed to be easily unit-tested. In this case, you should not access data directly from the request, because if you do it like this, when you want to unit test this code you have to construct a HttpRequestMessage.

You should do it like this to let MVC do all the model binding for you:

[HttpPost]
public void Confirmation(YOURDTO yourobj)//assume that you define YOURDTO elsewhere
{
        //your logic to process input parameters.

}

In case you do want to access the request. You just access the Request property of the controller (not through parameters). Like this:

[HttpPost]
public void Confirmation()
{
    var content = Request.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result;
}

In MVC, the Request property is actually a wrapper around .NET HttpRequest and inherit from a base class. When you need to unit test, you could also mock this object.

edited May 12 '15 at 13:53

answered Jul 31 '13 at 13:43

Khanh TO

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And in case you have HttpGet? If I use Request.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result; it doesn't work! – ayasha May 12 '15 at 10:47
@ayasha: with HttpGet, the parameters should come from query string instead of request body. – Khanh TO May 12 '15 at 13:39
@ayasha: I have also updated the answer. Just realized it did not work before – Khanh TO May 12 '15 at 14:02

score 3 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 22 '19 at 07:25

3

In case you want to cast to a class and not just a string:

YourClass model = await request.Content.ReadAsAsync<YourClass>();

answered Jan 22 '19 at 07:25

codeMonkey

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How to get HttpRequestMessage data

4 Answers4

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