POSTing to WebApi2 from C#

Question

I can't for the life of me get this to work. I keep getting 404.

Here's the WebApi2 code:

[HttpPost]
    public IHttpActionResult Post(string testString)
    {
        if(!string.IsNullOrEmpty(testString))
        {
            return Ok(testString);
        }
        else
        {
            return BadRequest();
        }
    }

Here's the WebClient code:

 public async Task PostingToWebServiceShouldWork()
    {
        var apiEndPoint = new Uri(String.Format("{0}/Paging", ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["ApiEndpoint"].ToString()));
        var apiRoot = new Uri(apiEndPoint.GetLeftPart(UriPartial.Authority));
        var apiCall = apiEndPoint.PathAndQuery.Substring(1, apiEndPoint.PathAndQuery.Length - 1);
        using (var client = new HttpClient(new HttpClientHandler() { UseDefaultCredentials = true }))
        {
            client.BaseAddress = apiRoot;
            client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Clear();
            client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));

            HttpContent content = new StringContent("testSTring");
            HttpResponseMessage response = await client.PostAsync(apiCall, content);

            if(response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
            {

            }
        }
    }

I just want to post a simple string to the web service. This should be dead simple, and it's giving me a migraine, lol. I've tried everything I can think of, and I have to be missing some tiny detail...

Thanks!

grayimp · Accepted Answer · 2016-09-16 15:17:23Z

1

Because your API endpoint is simply a string instead of an object, WebAPI is looking for that string as a query string parameter. You have two options:

Use the [FromBody] attribute in your action's definition

public IHttpActionResult Post([FromBody] string testString)

Send the string on the URL instead of in the body (works, but if you're going for security over HTTPS this exposes what you were posting)

See http://www.asp.net/web-api/overview/formats-and-model-binding/parameter-binding-in-aspnet-web-api for a deeper explanation and examples

answered Sep 16, 2016 at 15:17

grayimp

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3 Comments

John Over a year ago

Tried that, and I'm hitting the breakpoint in my service, but my parameter string value is "" (string.empty).... Is there a clear example of POSTing a simple string from c# to web api2 out there?

grayimp Over a year ago

Can you post your code that posts to the web service? I'm wondering if your problem is actually somehow in the way you are doing that.

John Over a year ago

It was - finally pulled down Fiddler and found the problem - evidently using a StreamWriter was causing my issue. Went to a UTF-8 encoded byte[], used a normal Stream.Write, and now data is flowing as it should! Thanks for pointing me in the right direction :)

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