How to Consume a Restful Service in .NET?

Question

What are my options to consume a RESTful service using the .Net framework? When is WCF(using the WebChannelFactory) more preferable to HttpClient?

Darrel Miller · Answer 1 · 2015-09-17T15:14:29.047

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Microsoft`s newest HTTP library is here https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.Net.Http and I have a blog post showing how to use it here.

You would never want to use WebChannelFactory against a RESTful service. The coupling generated by WebChannelFactory defeats the point of REST.

edited Sep 17 '15 at 15:14

answered Jan 16 '12 at 18:30

Darrel Miller

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Your blog link is dead, can you fix it? – dcp Oct 09 '13 at 00:08
@dcp Sorry about that. – Darrel Miller Oct 09 '13 at 01:42
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You'll want to see this package too: http://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.Net.Http/ – Gilney Oct 25 '13 at 14:09
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Mentioned Nuget package is deprecated. It is better to add a link to this one: https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.Net.Http – Andriy Buday Sep 17 '15 at 11:09
@AndriyBuday Updated. Thanks. – Darrel Miller Sep 17 '15 at 15:14

score 14 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 16 '12 at 17:22

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Check out restsharp. I haven't used it, but am looking into it for consuming our own REST services.

answered Jan 16 '12 at 17:22

Rex Morgan

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How did this work out? Is restsharp a good choice? It looks super convenient and easy to use. – Jonathan Jan 31 '17 at 14:20
Yes, I really like using it. – Rex Morgan Feb 09 '17 at 22:20

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 16 '12 at 17:19

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The hammock project makes it very easy to consume RESTful services, you can use it to easily create the required http requests you need:

https://github.com/danielcrenna/hammock

answered Jan 16 '12 at 17:19

Bassam Mehanni

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score 2 · Answer 4 · edited May 23 '17 at 12:02

There are few different ways of consuming REST services in .NET:

Plain .NET HTTP request
WCF mechanisms
HttpClient (recommended, nuget package)
Other libraries (RestSharp, Hammock, etc.)

I've wrote a blog post that demonstrates first three options.

As of consuming through WCF or HttpClient I think it makes sense to read this SO question to understand the potential of REST services. When you consume a REST service via WCF you cannot use all that power.

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 16 '12 at 17:23

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I think WCF is preferable whenever you want the abstraction it provides.

WCF provides an abstraction over the specific messaging and communication protocols being employed. Even only considering a RESTful scenario, you can more easily adapt to different message formats (XML, JSON, HTML).

WCF also provides configuration mechanisms, extensibility points, and instrumentation.

answered Jan 16 '12 at 17:23

Ethan Cabiac

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For anyone reading this now: WCF is essentially dead. Should you feel like looking into it, know that's it's a complete departure from REST, and should only be used if you really know you need it. – TheMonarch Jul 13 '17 at 16:15
@TheMonarch you seem to be under the impression that WCF is tied to a specific set of protocols. Judging by your comment you most likely associate WCF with various SOA technologies like XML and SOAP. WCF is in fact a communication framework designed to be extended for different protocols. It is true that most of the out-of-the-box extensions are related to SOA (a consequence of the time when WCF was released) but extensions can be written/exist for REST (HTTP / JSON), protocol buffers, gRPC, or even a custom protocol. – Ethan Cabiac Jul 17 '17 at 20:20

score 0 · Answer 6 · edited Jan 17 '17 at 21:09

This is one technique of calling or consuming rest webservice in asp.net c#

var client  = new RestClient("url"); 
var request = new RestRequest(Method.POST);

request.AddHeader("content-type", "application/json");
request.AddParameter("application/x-www-form-urlencoded",
    "type=password& user_id=test@gmail.com",ParameterType.RequestBody);

IRestResponse response = client.Execute(request);

score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Aug 14 '16 at 08:50

I just released a REST client here today. You can download the Git repo to see the samples. https://bitbucket.org/MelbourneDeveloper/restclient-.net

Open Source. (MIT License)
Markup language agnostic. (Supports JSON, SOAP and other markup languages)
Use strong types with REST.
Supports Android, iOS, Windows 10, Windows 10 Phone, Silverlight, .NET, .NET Core.
Incredibly simple.
Async friendly (uses async, await keywords).

When is WCF(using the WebChannelFactory) more preferable to HttpClient?

That is a very loaded question. WCF is a very large collection of technologies that allow you to communicate with a number of different protocols, authentication methods, and so on. It is very configurable, but REST is simple and supported by nearly all technologies available. If you write a REST service, chances are that nearly any app could consume it. Really, the question is about who your target audience is.

How to Consume a Restful Service in .NET?

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