Create a folder in SP2013 using REST and HTTPClient

Question

I am trying to create a folder in SP2013 using HTTPClient and REST.

The following are the requirements & constraints on the application

1. I need to create a folder in a 2013 document library using REST. CSOM is not allowed.

2. The program must be a C# Console Application.

3. I MUST use HTTPClient ONLY to make all calls to web service. No other old class or library should be used.

4. Integrated authentication is a MUST. you must not type in your user name and password here in code. it must use the identity of the process.

Based on these constraints I wrote this code

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Net.Http.Headers;
using System.Net.Http.Formatting;
using Newtonsoft.Json;
using Newtonsoft.Json.Linq;

namespace RESTCreateFolder
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Program p = new Program();
            int retVal = p.Process().Result;            
        }

        private async Task<int> Process()
        {
            string url = "http://bi.abhi.com/testweb/";
            using (HttpClient client = new HttpClient(new HttpClientHandler() { UseDefaultCredentials = true }))
            {
                client.BaseAddress = new System.Uri(url);
                client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Accept", "application/json; odata=verbose");
                string digest = await GetDigest(client);
                Console.WriteLine("Digest " + digest);
                try
                {
                    await CreateFolder(client, digest);
                }
                catch (Exception ex)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
                    Console.WriteLine(ex.StackTrace);
                }
            }
            return 0;
        }

        private object CreateRequest(string folderPath)
        {
            var type = new { type = "SP.Folder" };
            var request = new { __metadata = type, ServerRelativeUrl = folderPath };
            return request;
        }

        private async Task CreateFolder(HttpClient client, string digest)
        {
            client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("X-RequestDigest", digest);
            var request = CreateRequest("/test/foo");
            string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(request);
            StringContent strContent = new StringContent(json, System.Text.Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");
            strContent.Headers.ContentLength = json.Length;
            HttpResponseMessage response = await client.PostAsync("_api/web/folders", strContent);
            //response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
            if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
            {
                string content = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
                Console.WriteLine(content);
            }
            else
            {
                Console.WriteLine(response.StatusCode);
                Console.WriteLine(response.ReasonPhrase);
                string content = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
                Console.WriteLine(content);
            }
        }

        public async Task<string> GetDigest(HttpClient client)
        {
            string retVal = null;
            string cmd = "_api/contextinfo";                       
            HttpResponseMessage response = await client.PostAsJsonAsync(cmd, "");
            if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
            {
                string content = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
                JToken t = JToken.Parse(content);
                retVal = t["d"]["GetContextWebInformation"]["FormDigestValue"].ToString();
            }
            return retVal;
        }
    }
}

But this code keeps failing with BAD REQUEST.

Can you make "this" code work and let me know how you fixed it. I found many articles on MSDN but they all use the OLD approach of WebRequest which I cannot use. I must use HttpClient.

EDIT::

Here is the raw request captured from fiddler

POST http://bi.abhi.com/testweb/_api/web/folders HTTP/1.1
Accept: application/json; odata=verbose
X-RequestDigest: 0x8B2A0904D5056E49DB886A72D59A86264A000F9AB14CE728407ECCD6F4369A7AD2585967BE9A57085344A5ACC99A4DA61D59E5EFA9A54B9B83564B2EA736F7F4,21 Aug 2014 20:24:15 -0000
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
Host: bi.abhi.com
Content-Length: 67
Expect: 100-continue

{"__metadata":{"type":"SP.Folder"},"ServerRelativeUrl":"/test/foo"}

Here is the raw response from fiddler

HTTP/1.1 400 Bad Request
Cache-Control: private, max-age=0
Transfer-Encoding: chunked
Content-Type: application/json;odata=verbose;charset=utf-8
Expires: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 20:24:15 GMT
Last-Modified: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 20:24:15 GMT
Server: Microsoft-IIS/8.0
X-SharePointHealthScore: 0
SPClientServiceRequestDuration: 4
X-AspNet-Version: 4.0.30319
SPRequestGuid: a9c6b09c-9340-10e2-0000-093d0491623a
request-id: a9c6b09c-9340-10e2-0000-093d0491623a
X-RequestDigest: 0x8B2A0904D5056E49DB886A72D59A86264A000F9AB14CE728407ECCD6F4369A7AD2585967BE9A57085344A5ACC99A4DA61D59E5EFA9A54B9B83564B2EA736F7F4,21 Aug 2014 20:24:15 -0000
X-FRAME-OPTIONS: SAMEORIGIN
X-Powered-By: ASP.NET
MicrosoftSharePointTeamServices: 15.0.0.4569
X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff
X-MS-InvokeApp: 1; RequireReadOnly
Date: Thu, 21 Aug 2014 20:24:14 GMT

e6
{"error":{"code":"-1, System.InvalidOperationException","message":{"lang":"en-US","value":"The required version of WcfDataServices is missing. Please refer to http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=321931 for more information."}}}
0

I have patched my server environment completely and there are no new updates to apply. so I don't know why it says the required wcfdata services is missing.

Answer 1

I got this resolved. Used the answer provided on

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/a58a4bec-e936-48f9-b881-bc0a7ebb7f8a/create-a-folder-in-sp2013-document-library-using-rest-using-http-client?forum=appsforsharepoint

Apparently, when using StringContent you must set it to "application/json;odata=verbose" otherwise you get a 400 bad request. StringContent sets the Content-Type header.

StringContent strContent = new StringContent(json);
strContent.Headers.ContentType = MediaTypeHeaderValue.Parse("application/json;odata=verbose");

My full code now looks like

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Program p = new Program();
        int retVal = p.Process().Result;            
    }

    private async Task<int> Process()
    {
        string url = "http://bi.abhi.com/testweb/";
        using (HttpClient client = new HttpClient(new HttpClientHandler() { UseDefaultCredentials = true }))
        {
            client.BaseAddress = new System.Uri(url);
            client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Accept", "application/json; odata=verbose");
            string digest = await GetDigest(client);
            Console.WriteLine("Digest " + digest);
            try
            {
                await CreateFolder(client, digest);
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
                Console.WriteLine(ex.StackTrace);
            }
        }
        return 0;
    }

    private object CreateRequest(string folderPath)
    {
        var type = new { type = "SP.Folder" };
        var request = new { __metadata = type, ServerRelativeUrl = folderPath };
        return request;
    }

    private async Task CreateFolder(HttpClient client, string digest)
    {
        client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("X-RequestDigest", digest);
        var request = CreateRequest("foo");
        string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(request);
        StringContent strContent = new StringContent(json);
        strContent.Headers.ContentType = MediaTypeHeaderValue.Parse("application/json;odata=verbose");
        HttpResponseMessage response = await client.PostAsync("_api/web/getfolderbyserverrelativeurl('test/test123/')/folders", strContent);
        //response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
        if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
        {
            string content = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
            Console.WriteLine(content);
        }
        else
        {
            Console.WriteLine(response.StatusCode);
            Console.WriteLine(response.ReasonPhrase);
            string content = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
            Console.WriteLine(content);
        }
    }

    public async Task<string> GetDigest(HttpClient client)
    {
        string retVal = null;
        string cmd = "_api/contextinfo";                       
        HttpResponseMessage response = await client.PostAsJsonAsync(cmd, "");
        if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
        {
            string content = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
            JToken t = JToken.Parse(content);
            retVal = t["d"]["GetContextWebInformation"]["FormDigestValue"].ToString();
        }
        return retVal;
    }
}

Answer 2

If this is SharePoint Online, with this 4 requirements I'm afraid you cannot do that. You'd need to send the Authentication header or cookie in your request. you could do it adding the SP Client libraries, creating a SharepointOnlineClientCredentials, getting the cookie with method

SharePointOnlineCredentials.GetAuthenticationCookie 

and adding the cookie to the httpclient cookiecontainer.

If you are in SP On premises, I think it won't work either, but you can try to add the NetworkCredentials to the httpclient request: HttpClient.GetAsync with network credentials use the option

UseDefaultCredentials = true 

as it's said in the comment of the Accepted answer. But again, I don't think will work.