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From this answer to the question: Do HttpClient and HttpClientHandler have to be disposed?, I see that the best practice is not to dispose a System.Net.Http.HttpClient per HTTP request. In particular, it is stated that:

standard usage of HttpClient is not to dispose of it after every request.

And that is fine.

My question is, does this "pattern" apply to Windows.Web.Http.HttpClient as well? Or should it be disposed per HTTP request? I think the documentation is a bit vague on this. In one of the samples, it simply states:

// Once your app is done using the HttpClient object call dispose to 
// free up system resources (the underlying socket and memory used for the object)
httpclient.Dispose();

I believe this can be read both ways, so any specific input on this is appreciated.

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Lasse Christiansen
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    Think about it for a second - what would the *point* of this type be if you should only use it for a single request/response cycle? In such a circumstance, why wouldn't they just give you a means to directly construct some form of request object? – Damien_The_Unbeliever Jul 08 '15 at 14:48
  • If you dispose it "per request" you are restricted to one request. The real question is: Does HttpClient.Dispose do anything of significance? – usr Jul 08 '15 at 15:08

1 Answers1

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It seems to me that if it were intended to be used for only one request at a time, it would simply throw an exception if you tried to use it for more than one.

Also, consider that all but the earliest version of HTTP allows multiple requests for a given TCP connection. Using the same HttpClient object allows the framework to maintain a TCP connection for multiple requests.

While it's true that the sample code performs just one request, note this text in the documentation:

The HttpClient class instance acts as a session to send HTTP requests and receive responses. An HttpClient instance is a collection of settings that apply to all requests executed by that instance. In addition, every HttpClient instance uses its own connection pool…

[emphasis mine]

For the object to act as "a collection of settings that apply to all requests executed by that instance", it is obvious it would have to be used for more than one request.

Peter Duniho
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