Using DelegatingHandler with custom data on HttpClient

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Given the well known dilemma's and issues of using HttpClient - namely socket exhaustion and not respecting DNS updates, its considered best practice to use IHttpClientFactory and let the container decide when and how to utilise http pool connections efficiency. Which is all good, but now I cannot instantiate a custom DelegatingHandler with custom data on each request.

Sample below on how I did it before using the factory method:

public class HttpClientInterceptor : DelegatingHandler
{
    private readonly int _id;
    public HttpClientInterceptor(int id)
    {
        _id = id;
    }

    protected override async Task<HttpResponseMessage> SendAsync(HttpRequestMessage request, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
    {
        // associate the id with this request
        Database.InsertEnquiry(_id, request);
        return await base.SendAsync(request, cancellationToken);
    }
}

For every time I instantiate a HttpClient a Id can be passed along:

public void DoEnquiry()
{
    // Insert a new enquiry hypothetically 
    int id = Database.InsertNewEnquiry();
    using (var http = new HttpClient(new HttpClientInterceptor(id)))
    {
        // and do some operations on the http client
        // which will be logged in the database associated with id
        http.GetStringAsync("http://url.com");
    }
}

But now I cannot instantiate the HttpClient nor the Handlers.

public void DoEnquiry(IHttpClientFactory factory)
{
    int id = Database.InsertNewEnquiry();
    var http = factory.CreateClient();
    // and now??

    http.GetStringAsync("http://url.com");
}

How would I be able to achieve similar using the factory?

dotnet-httpclient .net-core c#
1 Answers

I cannot instantiate a custom DelegatingHandler with custom data on each request.

This is correct. But you can use a custom DelegatingHandler that is reusable (and stateless), and pass the data as part of the request. This is what HttpRequestMessage.Properties is for. When doing these kinds of "custom context" operations, I prefer to define my context "property" as an extension method:

public static class HttpRequestExtensions
{
  public static HttpRequestMessage WithId(this HttpRequestMessage request, int id)
  {
    request.Properties[IdKey] = id;
    return request;
  }

  public static int? TryGetId(this HttpRequestMessage request)
  {
    if (request.Properties.TryGetValue(IdKey, out var value))
      return value as int?;
    return null;
  }

  private static readonly string IdKey = Guid.NewGuid().ToString("N");
}

Then you can use it as such in a (reusable) DelegatingHandler:

public class HttpClientInterceptor : DelegatingHandler
{
  protected override async Task<HttpResponseMessage> SendAsync(HttpRequestMessage request, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
  {
    var id = request.TryGetId();
    if (id == null)
      throw new InvalidOperationException("This request must have an id set.");

    // associate the id with this request
    Database.InsertEnquiry(id.Value, request);
    return await base.SendAsync(request, cancellationToken);
  }
}

The disadvantage to this approach is that each callsite then has to specify the id. This means you can't use the built-in convenience methods like GetStringAsync; if you do, the exception above will be thrown. Instead, your code will have to use the lower-level SendAsync method:

var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, "http://url.com");
request.SetId(id);
var response = await client.SendAsync(request);

The calling boilerplate is rather ugly. You can wrap this up into your own GetStringAsync convenience method; something like this should work:

public static class HttpClientExtensions
{
  public static async Task<string> GetStringAsync(int id, string url)
  {
    var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, url);
    request.SetId(id);
    var response = await client.SendAsync(request);
    return await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
  }
}

and now your call sites end up looking cleaner again:

public async Task DoEnquiry(IHttpClientFactory factory)
{
  int id = Database.InsertNewEnquiry();
  var http = factory.CreateClient();
  var result = await http.GetStringAsync(id, "http://url.com");
}
user_2636930
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