Many Ways to make and Deserialize an HTTP GET with HttpClient

Mar 16, 2023 # C#, dotNet, HttpClient, Serialization, Deserialization

While playing around with source generation for System.Text.Json, I realized that over the years I have made HTTP GET requests and the subsequent deserialization of the response in many ways. I thought it would be fun to show some of the different ways to do this.

The sample code below makes requests to https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com, a “free fake API for testing and prototyping”.

Create a new application and add the Microsoft.AspNet.WebApi.Client package (this will let you use ReadAsAsync<T>).

Replace the code in Program.cs, with the below, there are some inline notes -

 1using System.Net.Http.Json;
 2using System.Text.Json;
 3
 4HttpClient httpClient = new HttpClient()
 5{
 6    BaseAddress = new Uri("https://jsonplaceholder.typicode.com")
 7};
 8
 9var options = new JsonSerializerOptions(JsonSerializerDefaults.Web);
10MyJsonContext myJsonContext = new MyJsonContext(options);
11
12Console.WriteLine("1. GetAsync and ReadFromJsonAsync, with source generation");
13var httpResponseMessage1 = await httpClient.GetAsync("users/1");
14httpResponseMessage1.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
15var user1 = await httpResponseMessage1.Content.ReadFromJsonAsync(myJsonContext.User);
16Console.WriteLine($"{user1}\n");
17
18
19Console.WriteLine("2. GetAsync and ReadFromJsonAsync");
20var httpResponseMessage2 = await httpClient.GetAsync("users/2");
21httpResponseMessage2.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
22var user2 = await httpResponseMessage2.Content.ReadFromJsonAsync<User>();
23Console.WriteLine($"{user2}\n");
24
25
26Console.WriteLine("3. GetAsync, ReadAsStringAsync, and JsonSerializer, with source generation");
27var httpResponseMessage3 = await httpClient.GetAsync("users/3");
28httpResponseMessage3.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
29var user3String = await httpResponseMessage3.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
30var user3 = JsonSerializer.Deserialize(user3String, myJsonContext.User);
31Console.WriteLine($"{user3}\n");
32
33
34Console.WriteLine("4. GetAsync, ReadAsStringAsync, and JsonSerializer");
35var httpResponseMessage4 = await httpClient.GetAsync("users/4");
36httpResponseMessage4.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
37var user4String = await httpResponseMessage4.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
38var user4 = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<User>(user4String, options);
39Console.WriteLine($"{user4}\n");
40
41
42Console.WriteLine("5. GetFromJsonAsync");
43var user5 = await httpClient.GetFromJsonAsync<User> ("users/5");
44Console.WriteLine($"{user5}\n");
45
46
47Console.WriteLine("6. GetFromJsonAsync with source generation");
48var user6 = await httpClient.GetFromJsonAsync("users/6", myJsonContext.User);
49Console.WriteLine($"{user6}\n");
50
51
52Console.WriteLine("7. GetAsync and ReadAsAsync<User>");
53var httpResponseMessage7 = await httpClient.GetAsync("users/7");
54httpResponseMessage7.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
55var user7 = await httpResponseMessage7.Content.ReadAsAsync<User>();
56Console.WriteLine($"{user7}\n");
57
58
59Console.WriteLine("8. GetStringAsync and JsonSerializer.Deserialize"); 
60var user8String = await httpClient.GetStringAsync("users/8");
61var user8 = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<User>(user8String, options);
62Console.WriteLine($"{user8}\n");
63
64
65Console.WriteLine("9. GetStringAsync and JsonSerializer.Deserialize, with source generation"); 
66var user9String = await httpClient.GetStringAsync("users/9");
67var user9 = JsonSerializer.Deserialize(user9String, myJsonContext.User);
68Console.WriteLine($"{user9}\n");
69
70
71Console.WriteLine("10. GetStreamAsync and JsonSerializer.Deserialize");
72var user10Stream = await httpClient.GetStreamAsync("users/10");
73var user10 = JsonSerializer.Deserialize<User>(user10Stream, options);
74Console.WriteLine($"{user10}\n");
75
76
77Console.WriteLine("11. GetAsync and GetStreamAsync, with source generation");
78var user11Stream = await httpClient.GetStreamAsync("users/10");
79var user11 = JsonSerializer.Deserialize(user11Stream, myJsonContext.User);
80Console.WriteLine($"{user11}\n");

I stopped at 11 because I was a little tired of doing it, but there are a few more ways.

Add a User class to the project. This is the type the JSON responses will be deserialized to. Note on lines 3-4, I setup source generation for the User type.

 1using System.Text.Json.Serialization;
 2
 3[JsonSerializable(typeof(User))]
 4internal partial class MyJsonContext : JsonSerializerContext {}
 5
 6public class User
 7{
 8    public override string ToString()
 9    {
10        return $"Name: {Name}, Phone: {Phone}";
11    }
12
13    public int Id { get; set; }
14    public string Name { get; set; }
15    public string Username { get; set; }
16    public string Email { get; set; }
17    public Address Address { get; set; }
18    public string Phone { get; set; }
19    public string Website { get; set; }
20    public Company Company { get; set; }
21}
22
23public class Address
24{
25    public string Street { get; set; }
26    public string Suite { get; set; }
27    public string City { get; set; }
28    public string Zipcode { get; set; }
29    public Geo Geo { get; set; }
30}
31
32public class Company
33{
34    public string Name { get; set; }
35    public string CatchPhrase { get; set; }
36    public string Bs { get; set; }
37}
38
39public class Geo
40{
41    public string Lat { get; set; }
42    public string Lng { get; set; }
43}

C# dotNet HttpClient Serialization Deserialization

Many Ways to make and Deserialize an HTTP GET with HttpClient

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