Decompressing GZip Stream from HTTPClient Response

c#, gzip, json, wcf

Solution

Just instantiate HttpClient like this:

HttpClientHandler handler = new HttpClientHandler()
{
    AutomaticDecompression = DecompressionMethods.GZip | DecompressionMethods.Deflate
};

using (var client = new HttpClient(handler)) //see update below
{
    // your code
}

Update June 19, 2020: It's not recommended to use httpclient in a 'using' block as it might cause port exhaustion.

private static HttpClient client = null;
    
ContructorMethod()
{
   if(client == null)
   {
        HttpClientHandler handler = new HttpClientHandler()
        {
            AutomaticDecompression = DecompressionMethods.GZip | DecompressionMethods.Deflate
        };        
        client = new HttpClient(handler);
   }
// your code            
 }

If using .Net Core 2.1+, consider using IHttpClientFactory and injecting like this in your startup code.

 var timeout = Policy.TimeoutAsync<HttpResponseMessage>(
            TimeSpan.FromSeconds(60));

 services.AddHttpClient<XApiClient>().ConfigurePrimaryHttpMessageHandler(() => new HttpClientHandler
        {
            AutomaticDecompression = DecompressionMethods.GZip | DecompressionMethods.Deflate
        }).AddPolicyHandler(request => timeout);

Problem

I am trying to connect to an api, that returns GZip encoded JSON, from a WCF service (WCF service to WCF service). I am using the HTTPClient to connect to the API and have been able to return the JSON object as a string. However I need to be able to store this returned data in a database and as such I figured the best way would be to return and store the JSON object in an array or byte or something along those lines. What I am having trouble with specifically is the decompressing of the GZip encoding and have been trying lots of different example but still cant get it. The below code is how I am establishing my connection and getting a response, this is the code that returns a string from the API. ``` public string getData(string foo) { string url = ""; HttpClient client = new HttpClient(); HttpResponseMessage response; string responseJsonContent; try { client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json")); response = client.GetAsync(url + foo).Result; responseJsonContent = response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result; return responseJsonContent; } catch (Exception ex) { System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(ex.Message); return ""; } } ``` I have been following a few different examples like these StackExchange API, MSDN, and a couple on stackoverflow, but I haven't been able to get any of these to work for me. What is the best way to accomplish this, am I even on the right track? Thanks guys.

Original source

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