Styjun

I've done a POST request with the HTTPClient class but now I'm struggling a bit. How can I achieve displaying it on my website? The goal is to post a json ( currently in a string) and then display it on the site again. As you can see my POST command goes to the home controller in mvc and then the about action. How can I now get the data and return it to a view?

public ActionResult About(string json)

Does adding paramters like this work? And if so how do I do it properly?

This is the method call:

post(JsonConvert.SerializeXmlNode(pack));

This is the method itself:

async Task post(string jsonText)

 // Create a New HttpClient object and dispose it when done, so the app doesn't leak resources
 using (HttpClient client = new HttpClient())
 
 // Call asynchronous network methods in a try/catch block to handle exceptions
 try
 
 StringContent json = new StringContent(jsonText, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");
 HttpResponseMessage response = await client.PostAsync("http://localhost:60000/home/about", json);
 response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
 string responseBody = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
 // Above three lines can be replaced with new helper method below
 // string responseBody = await client.GetStringAsync(uri);

 Console.WriteLine(responseBody);
 catch (HttpRequestException e)
 
 Console.WriteLine("nException Caught!");
 Console.WriteLine("Message :0 ", e.Message);
 
 
 

Update

How can i give the PostAsync command my own class? It forces me give it a HttpContent.

As suggested i have created a new method to cache the whole data but what parameter do i have to give the method which saves the data to receive the class or httpcontent? (in the controller)

 [HttpPost]
 public HttpResponseMessage Data(//What parameter?)
 
 //SaveData

 return new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.OK);

 

So your question would be better asked as "How do I return json from an MVC Controller" I think. If that's the case then take a look at this...

ASP.NET MVC controller actions that return JSON or partial html

UPDATE #1

So I think the OP is actually trying to post from a console app and then be able to view the json that was sent from that console app within a website?

OP, When the console app posts the data, that's a single request with no persistence of the data unless YOU persist it. You would need to store that json string somewhere. Depending on the need, this could be a DB or some cache.

You would then need to amend your About method to retrieve the json from that storage location, deserialise it and return it within the ViewModel.

Alternatively, you could swap out the About method for an API call that simply retrieves the json and returns it - then you would need to implement a client-side get from your web page to retrieve the json from the api and display it.

Various options, various pros & cons to all of them and all dependant upon your requirements.

UPDATE #2

Further to OP adding a comment to this answer...

I would suggest you define the data that is going to posted between the Console application and your MVC application - don't just use a string. I would suggest adding a third project as a class assembly and define this class in here. You can then add a reference to this new project in both the Console project and the MVC project so that they can both reference the new class.

You currently have two uses of your About method, your Console app is POSTING data and your View is GETTING data - you should separate these things into two separate Methods and decorate each with appropriate attributes [HttpPost] and [HttpGet].

Update your Console application to use your new class, serialise it and post it similar to how you're currently doing it - the url should use the method from above decorated with the [HttpPost].

Adjust your [HttpPost] method to take the object you posted and store it somewhere. I get the impression this is a basic project or even a POC so just cache it for now. Here's an article about caching

Cache in-memory in ASP.NET Core

You may want to put the requests into a collection (List) and keep the collection itself in the cache - this will depend on what you need to display in your webpage.

In you [HttpGet] method, you now need to retrieve everything from the cache and pass it into your ViewModel - as you should now have a nice MyClass object (or List) this should be straight forward to render - in fact VS will likely generate the view for you!

There's really far too much to go into in this thread but hopefully this helps. I don't think it's going to be possible to post entire code samples unfortunately.

Hopefully while not the answer you may have been looking for, it'll help.

UPDATE #3

Ok - I've created a solution that should demonstrate what you need to do.

I'm sure there are other/better ways to do what you want to do BUT...hopefully this will help you understand the concepts.

https://github.com/dotnetter/ConsoleHttpExample

Just clone the repo and configure in VS to run both the website and the console app.

you should access json data like this :

public ActionResult Insert(dynamic[] dynamicClass)
 

 try
 
 //do something...

var movie = //convert dynamicClass to whatever you want... ;
 return View(movie);

 
 catch (Exception ex)
 
 // Otherwise return a 400 (Bad Request) error response
 return BadRequest(ex.ToString());
 


 

and for your question how to use in the view, its up to you. basiclly if youre using MVC your can store it in some class and use it like this(in cshtml file):

@model MvcMovie.Models.Movie

@
 ViewData["Title"] = "Details"; 


<h1>Details</h1>

<div>
 <h4>Movie</h4>
 <hr />
 <dl class="row">
 <dt class="col-sm-2">
 @Html.DisplayNameFor(model => model.Title)
 </dt>
 <dd class="col-sm-10">
 @Html.DisplayFor(model => model.Title)
 </dd>
 <dt class="col-sm-2">
 @Html.DisplayNameFor(model => model.ReleaseDate)
 </dt>
 <dd class="col-sm-10">
 @Html.DisplayFor(model => model.ReleaseDate)
 </dd>
 <dt class="col-sm-2">
 @Html.DisplayNameFor(model => model.Genre)
 </dt>
 <dd class="col-sm-10">
 @Html.DisplayFor(model => model.Genre)
 </dd>
 <dt class="col-sm-2">
 @Html.DisplayNameFor(model => model.Price)
 </dt>
 <dd class="col-sm-10">
 @Html.DisplayFor(model => model.Price)
 </dd>
 </dl>
</div>