How to make HTTP calls, using ASP.NET MVC?

Question

What I'm trying to do:

I'm trying to practise making HTTP calls (...if that is what it's called) from a simple ASP.NET MVC web application. To do this, I am attempting to get weather details from OpenWeatherMap. You can do this by:

• Add the following parameter to the GET request: APPID=APIKEY
  • Example: api.openweathermap.org/data/2.5/forecast/city?id=524901&APPID=1111111111

My understanding, from my learning:

• The controller is the one to make the above HTTP call.

My question:

• How do I actually make that HTTP GET request, in ASP.NET MVC?

Answer 1

Use System.Net.Http.HttpClient.

You can do some basic reading from a website using something like the following:

using (var client = new HttpClient())
{
    var uri = new Uri("http://www.google.com/");

    var response = await client.GetAsync(uri);

    string textResult = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
}

You may want to make sure to test response.IsSuccessStatusCode (checks for an HTTP 200 result) to make sure the result is what you expect before you parse it.