ASP.NET HttpContext
last modified October 18, 2023
In this article we show how to retrieve HTTP specific data via HttpContext in an ASP.NET application.
ASP.NET is a cross-platform, high-performance, open-source framework for building modern, cloud-enabled, web applications. It is developed by Microsoft.
Minimal APIs provide a way of creating HTTP APIs with minimal dependencies. They are ideal for microservices and learning about web programming. With minimal APIs, we can quickly create a new web application and test our code.
The HttpContext contains all HTTP-specific information about an
individual HTTP request. We can get information about the request, response,
user, or the session.
ASP.NET HttpContext example
The following example uses HttpContext to get some information
about the request.
$ dotnet new web --no-https -o HttpContextEx
We create a new ASP.NET web application.
var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
var app = builder.Build();
app.MapGet("/ctx", (HttpContext context) => context.Response.WriteAsync("HTTP Context\n"));
app.MapGet("/ctx2", (HttpContext context) =>
{
var method = context.Request.Method;
var host = context.Request.Host;
var ua = context.Request.Headers["User-Agent"];
context.Response.WriteAsync($"{method} {host} {ua}\n");
});
app.MapGet("/ctx3", (HttpContext context) =>
{
string name = context.Request.Query["name"];
string occupation = context.Request.Query["occupation"];
context.Response.WriteAsync($"{name} is a {occupation}\n");
});
app.Run("http://localhost:3000");
We map three endpoints in which we use the HttpContext.
app.MapGet("/ctx", (HttpContext context) => context.Response.WriteAsync("HTTP Context\n"));
For the /ctx path, we simply write a message back to the client
with WriteAsync.
app.MapGet("/ctx2", (HttpContext context) =>
{
var method = context.Request.Method;
var host = context.Request.Host;
var ua = context.Request.Headers["User-Agent"];
context.Response.WriteAsync($"{method} {host} {ua}\n");
});
For the /ctx2 path, we get retrieve the request method, host, and
User-Agent header. We build a message using this information and
send it to the client.
app.MapGet("/ctx3", (HttpContext context) =>
{
string name = context.Request.Query["name"];
string occupation = context.Request.Query["occupation"];
context.Response.WriteAsync($"{name} is a {occupation}\n");
});
In the third case, we retrieve the GET queries.
$ dotnet watch
We start the application. The application listens on port 3000. We will use the
curl tool to generate requests to our application.
$ curl localhost:3000/ctx HTTP Context
We generate a GET request to the first URL.
$ curl localhost:3000/ctx2 GET localhost:3000 curl/7.81.0
We send a GET request to the second URL.
$ curl 'localhost:3000/ctx3?name=John%20Doe&occupation=gardener' John Doe is a gardener
In the third case, we add some query data to the URL.
ASP.NET HttpContext example II
In the second example, we use HttpContext in a controller.
var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
builder.Services.AddControllers();
var app = builder.Build();
app.UseRouting();
app.UseEndpoints(endpoints =>
{
endpoints.MapControllers();
});
app.Run("http://localhost:3000");
We set up the controllers.
using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
public class HomeController : Controller
{
[HttpGet("/")]
[Produces("text/plain")]
public IActionResult Index()
{
string method = HttpContext.Request.Method;
string host = HttpContext.Request.Host.ToString();
string ua = HttpContext.Request.Headers["User-Agent"];
string msg = $"{method} {host} {ua}\n";
return Ok(msg);
}
}
For the home page, we get the request method, host, and the user agent. The action returns a plain text message to the client.
string method = HttpContext.Request.Method;
The HttpContext.Request.Method returns the request method.
$ dotnet watch
We start the application.
$ curl localhost:3000 GET localhost:3000 curl/7.81.0
We generate a GET request to the home page.
In this article we have used HttpContext to retrieve HTTP-specific data.