Unirest for .Net

Unirest is a set of lightweight HTTP libraries available in multiple languages.

This is a port of the Java library to .NET.

Installing

Use nuget package manager to install the pre-release version of Unirest.

Install-Package Unirest-API -pre

Creating Request

So you're probably wondering how using Unirest makes creating requests in .NET easier, here is a basic POST request that will explain everything:

HttpResponse<MyClass> jsonResponse = Unirest.post("http://httpbin.org/post")
  .header("accept", "application/json")
  .field("parameter", "value")
  .field("foo", "bar")
  .asJson<MyClass>();

Requests are made when as[Type]() is invoked, possible types include Json, Binary, String. If the request supports this, a body can be passed along with .body(String) or body<T>(T) to serialize an arbitary object to JSON. If you already have a dictionary of parameters or do not wish to use seperate field methods for each one there is a .fields(Dictionary<string, object> parameters) method that will serialize each key - value to form parameters on your request.

.headers(Dictionary<string, string> headers) is also supported in replacement of multiple header methods.

Asynchronous Requests

Sometimes, well most of the time, you want your application to be asynchronous and not block, Unirest supports this in .NET with the TPL pattern and async/await:

Task<HttpResponse<MyClass>> myClassTask = Unirest.post("http://httpbin.org/post")
  .header("accept", "application/json")
  .field("param1", "value1")
  .field("param2", "value2")
  .asJsonAsync<MyClass>();

File Uploads

Creating multipart requests with .NET is trivial, simply pass along a Stream Object as a field:

byte[] data = File.ReadAllBytes(@"filePath");
HttpResponse<MyClass> myClass = Unirest.post("http://httpbin.org/post")
  .header("accept", "application/json")
  .field("parameter", "value")
  .field("files", data)
  .asJson<MyClass>();

Custom Entity Body

HttpResponse<MyClass> myClass = Unirest.post("http://httpbin.org/post")
  .header("accept", "application/json")
  .body("{\"parameter\":\"value\", \"foo\":\"bar\"}")
  .asJson<MyClass>();

Request

The .NET Unirest library follows the builder style conventions. You start building your request by creating a HttpRequest object using one of the following:

HttpRequest request = Unirest.get(String url);
HttpRequest request = Unirest.post(String url);
HttpRequest request = Unirest.put(String url);
HttpRequest request = Unirest.patch(String url);
HttpRequest request = Unirest.delete(String url);

Response

Upon recieving a response Unirest returns the result in the form of an Object, this object should always have the same keys for each language regarding to the response details.

.Code - HTTP Response Status Code (Example 200)
.Headers - HTTP Response Headers
.Body - Parsed response body where applicable, for example JSON responses are parsed to Objects / Associative Arrays.
.Raw - Un-parsed response body

Basic Authentication

The .NET Unirest library has built-in support for basic authentication. You can append your credentials with your request as follows.

HttpResponse<MyClass> myClass = Unirest.post("http://httpbin.org/post")
  .header("accept", "application/json")
  .field("parameter", "value")
  .basicAuth("username", "password")
  .asJson<MyClass>();

Advanced Authentication using Filter

This library supports message filter for outgoing http messages. This functionality can be used for manipulating outgoing request. A usecase for this feature is to use external authentication handlers for advanced authentication process such as the various flows of oAuth. You can set an authentication filter that is invoked before making a request and thus any additional credentials or headers can be appended. See uniauth on github (https://github.com/zeeshanejaz/uniauth-net) for a compatible authentication filter.

HttpResponse<MyClass> myClass = Unirest.post("http://httpbin.org/post")
  .header("accept", "application/json")
  .field("parameter", "value")
  .filter(Func<HttpRequestMessage, bool> filter)
  .asJson<MyClass>();

Knight1988 / unirest-net