HttpRequest - Limbo Packages

In .NET we have the HttpWebRequest class, but using it is not super user friendly. So in this package, the HttpRequest class wraps the HttpWebRequest class, while hopefully also making it easier to use.

To make a simple GET request, your code could look something like as shown below:

// Initialize the request for a GET request
var request = new HttpRequest
{
    Url = "http://example.org/"
};

// Send the request and get the response
var response = request.GetResponse();

You can also specify the HTTP method along with a number of other options. Notice the PostData property with a collection of POST parameters:

// Initialize the request for a POST request
var request = new HttpRequest
{
    Method = HttpMethod.Post,
    Url = "http://example.org/",
    UserAgent = "MyClient",
    Authorization = "Basic dXNlcjpwYXNz",
    PostData = new HttpPostData {
        {"hello", "world" }
    }
};

// Send the request and get the response
var response = request.GetResponse();

or alternatively, you can specify the body directly (eg. with raw JSON as shown below):

// Initialize the request for a POST request
var request = new HttpRequest
{
    Method = HttpMethod.Post,
    Url = "http://example.org/",
    UserAgent = "MyClient",
    Authorization = "Basic dXNlcjpwYXNz",
    Body = "{\"hello\":\"world\"}"
};

// Send the request and get the response
var response = request.GetResponse();

You can see the HttpRequest class for a list of all properties.

GetResponse

In .NET, the GetResponse method will trigger an exception for HTTP protocol errors (eg. if the server responds with a 404 or 500 status code). The corresponding GetResponse method will catch any exceptions thrown for HTTP protocol errors. Instead you can validate a request something like this:

public void ValidateRequest(IHttpRequest request) {
    if (response.StatusCode == HttpStatusCode.OK) return;
    if (response.StatusCode == HttpStatusCode.Created) return;
    throw new Exception("Oh noes");
}

Notice that the GetResponse method may still throw exceptions for errors at a lower level - eg. if the host of the specified URL is unreachable.