Logging raw HTTP request/response in ASP.NET MVC & IIS7

Question

Definitely use an IHttpModule and implement the BeginRequest and EndRequest events.

All of the "raw" data is present between HttpRequest and HttpResponse, it just isn't in a single raw format. Here are the parts needed to build Fiddler-style dumps (about as close to raw HTTP as it gets):

request.HttpMethod + " " + request.RawUrl + " " + request.ServerVariables["SERVER_PROTOCOL"]
request.Headers // loop through these "key: value"
request.InputStream // make sure to reset the Position after reading or later reads may fail

For the response:

"HTTP/1.1 " + response.Status
response.Headers // loop through these "key: value"

Note that you cannot read the response stream so you have to add a filter to the Output stream and capture a copy.

In your BeginRequest, you will need to add a response filter:

HttpResponse response = HttpContext.Current.Response;
OutputFilterStream filter = new OutputFilterStream(response.Filter);
response.Filter = filter;

Store filter where you can get to it in the EndRequest handler. I suggest in HttpContext.Items. There can then get the full response data in filter.ReadStream().

Then implement OutputFilterStream using the Decorator pattern as a wrapper around a stream:

/// <summary>
/// A stream which keeps an in-memory copy as it passes the bytes through
/// </summary>
public class OutputFilterStream : Stream
{
    private readonly Stream InnerStream;
    private readonly MemoryStream CopyStream;

    public OutputFilterStream(Stream inner)
    {
        this.InnerStream = inner;
        this.CopyStream = new MemoryStream();
    }

    public string ReadStream()
    {
        lock (this.InnerStream)
        {
            if (this.CopyStream.Length <= 0L ||
                !this.CopyStream.CanRead ||
                !this.CopyStream.CanSeek)
            {
                return String.Empty;
            }

            long pos = this.CopyStream.Position;
            this.CopyStream.Position = 0L;
            try
            {
                return new StreamReader(this.CopyStream).ReadToEnd();
            }
            finally
            {
                try
                {
                    this.CopyStream.Position = pos;
                }
                catch { }
            }
        }
    }


    public override bool CanRead
    {
        get { return this.InnerStream.CanRead; }
    }

    public override bool CanSeek
    {
        get { return this.InnerStream.CanSeek; }
    }

    public override bool CanWrite
    {
        get { return this.InnerStream.CanWrite; }
    }

    public override void Flush()
    {
        this.InnerStream.Flush();
    }

    public override long Length
    {
        get { return this.InnerStream.Length; }
    }

    public override long Position
    {
        get { return this.InnerStream.Position; }
        set { this.CopyStream.Position = this.InnerStream.Position = value; }
    }

    public override int Read(byte[] buffer, int offset, int count)
    {
        return this.InnerStream.Read(buffer, offset, count);
    }

    public override long Seek(long offset, SeekOrigin origin)
    {
        this.CopyStream.Seek(offset, origin);
        return this.InnerStream.Seek(offset, origin);
    }

    public override void SetLength(long value)
    {
        this.CopyStream.SetLength(value);
        this.InnerStream.SetLength(value);
    }

    public override void Write(byte[] buffer, int offset, int count)
    {
        this.CopyStream.Write(buffer, offset, count);
        this.InnerStream.Write(buffer, offset, count);
    }
}

The following extension method on HttpRequest will create a string that can be pasted into fiddler and replayed.

namespace System.Web
{
    using System.IO;

    /// <summary>
    /// Extension methods for HTTP Request.
    /// <remarks>
    /// See the HTTP 1.1 specification http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616.html
    /// for details of implementation decisions.
    /// </remarks>
    /// </summary>
    public static class HttpRequestExtensions
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Dump the raw http request to a string. 
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="request">The <see cref="HttpRequest"/> that should be dumped.       </param>
        /// <returns>The raw HTTP request.</returns>
        public static string ToRaw(this HttpRequest request)
        {
            StringWriter writer = new StringWriter();

            WriteStartLine(request, writer);
            WriteHeaders(request, writer);
            WriteBody(request, writer);

            return writer.ToString();
        }

        private static void WriteStartLine(HttpRequest request, StringWriter writer)
        {
            const string SPACE = " ";

            writer.Write(request.HttpMethod);
            writer.Write(SPACE + request.Url);
            writer.WriteLine(SPACE + request.ServerVariables["SERVER_PROTOCOL"]);
        }

        private static void WriteHeaders(HttpRequest request, StringWriter writer)
        {
            foreach (string key in request.Headers.AllKeys)
            {
                writer.WriteLine(string.Format("{0}: {1}", key, request.Headers[key]));
            }

            writer.WriteLine();
        }

        private static void WriteBody(HttpRequest request, StringWriter writer)
        {
            StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(request.InputStream);

            try
            {
                string body = reader.ReadToEnd();
                writer.WriteLine(body);
            }
            finally
            {
                reader.BaseStream.Position = 0;
            }
        }
    }
}

You can use the ALL_RAW server variable to get the original HTTP headers sent with the request, then you can get the InputStream as usual:

string originalHeader = HttpHandler.Request.ServerVariables["ALL_RAW"];

check out: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms524602%28VS.90%29.aspx

Well, I'm working on a project and did, maybe not too deep, a log using the request params:

Take a look:

public class LogAttribute : ActionFilterAttribute
{
    private void Log(string stageName, RouteData routeData, HttpContextBase httpContext)
    {
        //Use the request and route data objects to grab your data
        string userIP = httpContext.Request.UserHostAddress;
        string userName = httpContext.User.Identity.Name;
        string reqType = httpContext.Request.RequestType;
        string reqData = GetRequestData(httpContext);
        string controller = routeData["controller"];
        string action = routeData["action"];

        //TODO:Save data somewhere
    }

    //Aux method to grab request data
    private string GetRequestData(HttpContextBase context)
    {
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

        for (int i = 0; i < context.Request.QueryString.Count; i++)
        {
            sb.AppendFormat("Key={0}, Value={1}<br/>", context.Request.QueryString.Keys[i], context.Request.QueryString[i]);
        }

        for (int i = 0; i < context.Request.Form.Count; i++)
        {
            sb.AppendFormat("Key={0}, Value={1}<br/>", context.Request.Form.Keys[i], context.Request.Form[i]);
        }

        return sb.ToString();
    }

You can decorate your controllers class for log it entirely:

[Log]
public class TermoController : Controller {...}

or log just some individual action methods

[Log]
public ActionResult LoggedAction(){...}