Custom header to HttpClient request

172
votes

How do I add a custom header to a HttpClient request? I am using PostAsJsonAsync method to post the JSON. The custom header that I would need to be added is 

"X-Version: 1"

This is what I have done so far:

using (var client = new HttpClient()) {
    client.BaseAddress = new Uri("https://api.clickatell.com/");
    client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Clear();
    client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Authorization = new AuthenticationHeaderValue("Bearer", "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx");
    client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));
    var response = client.PostAsJsonAsync("rest/message", svm).Result;
}
4
c#asp.nethttp-headersdotnet-httpclient
Possible duplicate of Adding Http Headers to HttpClient - Liam
@Liam : My question was how to add custom headers. Where as the other question was how to add headers - Libin Joseph
I think it has been found that we shouldn't dispose of HttpClient. aspnetmonsters.com/2016/08/2016-08-27-httpclientwrong - Don Rolling

4 Answers

71
votes
var request = new HttpRequestMessage {
    RequestUri = new Uri("[your request url string]"),
    Method = HttpMethod.Post,
    Headers = {
        { "X-Version", "1" } // HERE IS HOW TO ADD HEADERS,
        { HttpRequestHeader.Authorization.ToString(), "[your authorization token]" },
        { HttpRequestHeader.ContentType.ToString(), "multipart/mixed" },//use this content type if you want to send more than one content type
    },
    Content = new MultipartContent { // Just example of request sending multipart request
        new ObjectContent<[YOUR JSON OBJECT TYPE]>(
            new [YOUR JSON OBJECT TYPE INSTANCE](...){...}, 
            new JsonMediaTypeFormatter(), 
            "application/json"), // this will add 'Content-Type' header for the first part of request
        new ByteArrayContent([BINARY DATA]) {
            Headers = { // this will add headers for the second part of request
                { "Content-Type", "application/Executable" },
                { "Content-Disposition", "form-data; filename=\"test.pdf\"" },
            },
        },
    },
};
262
votes

I have found the answer to my question.

client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("X-Version","1");

That should add a custom header to your request

108
votes

Here is an answer based on that by Anubis (which is a better approach as it doesn't modify the headers for every request) but which is more equivalent to the code in the original question:

using Newtonsoft.Json;
...

var client = new HttpClient();
var httpRequestMessage = new HttpRequestMessage
    {
        Method = HttpMethod.Post,
        RequestUri = new Uri("https://api.clickatell.com/rest/message"),
        Headers = { 
            { HttpRequestHeader.Authorization.ToString(), "Bearer xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" },
            { HttpRequestHeader.Accept.ToString(), "application/json" },
            { "X-Version", "1" }
        },
        Content = new StringContent(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(svm))
    };

var response = client.SendAsync(httpRequestMessage).Result;
8
votes

There is a Headers property in the HttpRequestMessage class. You can add custom headers there, which will be sent with each HTTP request. The DefaultRequestHeaders in the HttpClient class, on the other hand, sets headers to be sent with each request sent using that client object, hence the name Default Request Headers.

Hope this makes things more clear, at least for someone seeing this answer in future.