The remote server returned an error: (415) Unsupported Media Type

Question

I try to upload a text file from WPF RESTful client to ASP .NET MVC WebAPI 2 website.

Client code

HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)HttpWebRequest.Create("http://localhost:22678/api/Account/UploadFile?fileName=test.txt&description=MyDesc1");

request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Http.Post;
request.Headers.Add("Authorization", "Bearer " + tokenModel.ExternalAccessToken);  
request.ContentType = "text/plain";
request.MediaType = "text/plain";
byte[] fileToSend = File.ReadAllBytes(@"E:\test.txt");  
request.ContentLength = fileToSend.Length;

using (Stream requestStream = request.GetRequestStream())
{
      // Send the file as body request. 
      requestStream.Write(fileToSend, 0, fileToSend.Length);
      requestStream.Close();
}

using (HttpWebResponse response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse())
                        Console.WriteLine("HTTP/{0} {1} {2}", response.ProtocolVersion, (int)response.StatusCode, response.StatusDescription);

WebAPI 2 code

[HttpPost]
[HostAuthentication(DefaultAuthenticationTypes.ExternalBearer)]
[Route("UploadFile")]
public void UploadFile(string fileName, string description, Stream fileContents)
{
    byte[] buffer = new byte[32768];
    MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
    int bytesRead, totalBytesRead = 0;
    do
    {
        bytesRead = fileContents.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
        totalBytesRead += bytesRead;

        ms.Write(buffer, 0, bytesRead);
    } while (bytesRead > 0);

   var data = ms.ToArray() ;

    ms.Close();
    Debug.WriteLine("Uploaded file {0} with {1} bytes", fileName, totalBytesRead);
}

So.. Under the client code I am facing that exception

The remote server returned an error: (415) Unsupported Media Type.

Any clue what do I am missing?

Answer 1

You are setting the ContentType = "text/plain", and this settings drive the Formatter selection. Please check Media Formatters for more details.

An extract:

In Web API, the media type determines how Web API serializes and deserializes the HTTP message body. There is built-in support for XML, JSON, and form-urlencoded data, and you can support additional media types by writing a media formatter.

So, there is no built in text/plain formatter, ie: Unsupported Media Type. You can change the content-type to some supported, built-in, or implement custome one (as described in the link)