C# PostAsync call never returns with result

Question

So I have some code from a previous working project. but for some reason when I use the relevant code in my new project it refuses to work. Essentially I am trying to make a call out to an api and receive their token. I have to pass in the body of the request a grant_type and then my username and password. Now everything works fine up until I hit the line client.PostAsync();

Then the debugger just kinda stops?(no exceptions or errors). I mean it continues to run but it never hits the next line.

I have tried .ConfigureAwait(false) still nothing. I have tried await client.PostAsync(). I've tried just about everything I can find here on StackOverflow. I am not sure what I'm missing but then again thats why I'm making this post. Maybe theres something different between the projects but I checked the references and they all seem to match.

Additional context: The code that is executing is a restful api (not a console application). So its an api reaching out to another api to receive a token and then either make more calls with the aforementioned token and/or then do some business logic with.

Edit: Just remembered something. In post man I can make the call correctly and I get the result so the destination is working.

here is the relevant code:

private HttpClient HttpClientSetup()
{
    var client = new HttpClient(new LoggingHandler(new HttpClientHandler())) { BaseAddress = new Uri(_apiBaseUrl), Timeout = TimeSpan.FromMilliseconds(45000) };
    client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Clear();
    client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));
    return client;
}    

private myObj GetToken()
{
    HttpClient client = HttpClientSetup();
    var form = new Dictionary<string, string>
    {
       {"grant_type", "client_credentials"},
       {"client_id", _username},
       {"client_secret", _password},
    };
    try
    {
        HttpResponseMessage response = client.PostAsync("auth/token", new FormUrlEncodedContent(form)).Result;
        //more stuff
    }
    catch(Exception e)
    {
        //stuff
    }
}

Answer 1

When you use asynchronous methods like PostAsync, you'll want to await those to get the result of the asynchronous Task.

Relevant changes include making your method async and to return a Task of the result type:

private async Task<myObj> GetToken(){
...

Then await-ing the call:

HttpResponseMessage response = await client.PostAsync(...

For background, consult the docs for async programming.

Answer 2

So I have a working solution. None of what people have been focusing on is correct. People have jumped to quickly to focus on await or async etc. Which normally may have been the case but in my question I explicitly said I had tried everything.Even after I implemented the changes Noah Satel mentioned I still had the same issue. I do appreciate Noah's response and it might help others but it was not the solution to my problem.

The solution had to do with the formatting of my request to the api.

First I learned that postman can generate code. On the right hand side there is a '</>' clicking on that and selecting in the drop down C#-RestSharp Postman provided me with this.

Using this I was able to receive a response and continue debugging. Of course I am going to try and get a working sample that doesn't use restsharp but until then this is what I am going to use.

For full context here is my token method.

using System.Text;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Net.Http.Headers;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Newtonsoft.Json;
   using RestSharp;//If you dont have this install by going to Manage NuGet //Packages. select Browse and search RestSharp install and you should be good to go
private async Task<Token> GetToken(){
//the postman code block
var client = new RestClient("myUrl");
                client.Timeout = -1;
                var request = new RestRequest(Method.POST);
                request.AddHeader("Accept", "application/json");
                request.AddHeader("Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
                request.AddParameter("grant_type", "client_credentials");
                request.AddParameter("client_id", _username);
                request.AddParameter("client_secret", _password);
                IRestResponse response = client.Execute(request); 
//
Token newtoken = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Token>(response.Content);
return newtoken;
}

Answer 3

You can give this code snippet a try, it is for submitting json data to a post API method

        var uri = new Uri("Place uri");
        var payload = "{\"CustomerId\": 5,\"CustomerName\": \"John\"}";
        var content = new StringContent(payload, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json"); 
        var response = string.Empty;
        using (var client = new HttpClient())
        {
            HttpRequestMessage request = new HttpRequestMessage
            {
                Method = HttpMethod.Post,
                RequestUri = uri,
                Content = content
            };

            var result = await client.SendAsync(request);
            if (result.IsSuccessStatusCode)
            {
                response = result.StatusCode.ToString();
            }
        }
        return response;

Another snippet to submit form data

using (var httpClient = new HttpClient())
{
    using (var content = new FormUrlEncodedContent(postData))
    {
        content.Headers.Clear();
        content.Headers.Add("Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");

        HttpResponseMessage response = await httpClient.PostAsync(url, content);

        return await response.Content.ReadAsAsync<TResult>();
    }
}

Answer 4

To see result of postAsync method in debug execute 2 steps. Screenshot: PostAsync debug

1. return HttpResponseMessage from method with postAsync:

       private static async Task<HttpResponseMessage> methodWithPostAsync(){
       ...
       response = await client.PostAsync(url, data);
       return response
       }
   

2. call method and wait for response message status:

   Task<HttpResponseMessage> content= methodWithPostAsync();
   while (!content.IsCompleted)
   {
       Console.WriteLine("busy");
       System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);
   }