A simple library to assist with converting DTOs (data-transfer-objects) into FormUrlEncodedContent (application/x-www-form-urlencoded), suitable for HttpClient. It supports arbitrary levels of nesting & allows control over how properties are named and serialized.
Although anyone sane wouldn't choose application/x-www-form-urlencoded for an API, sometimes it's unavoidable (it seems to be popular for APIs written in PHP)
Define your DTO(s) with public properties:
public class PersonDto
{
public string FirstName { get; set; }
public Contact ContactDetails { get; set; }
public class Contact
{
public string PhoneNumber {get; set;}
public string Email { get; set; }
}
}Optionally, decorate properties with DtoFormUrlEncoderConverterAttribute to control the serialization
public class Contact
{
[DtoFormUrlEncoderConverter(typeof(PhoneNumberConverter))]
public string PhoneNumber {get; set;}
public string Email { get; set; }
}
public class PhoneNumberConverter : IPropertyValueConverter
{
public string Convert(object value) {
var phoneNumber = value as string;
return phoneNumber?.Replace(" ", "");
}
}Create your DTOs:
var myPerson = new PersonDto {
FirstName = "Joe Bloggs",
ContactDetails = new PersonDto.Contact {
Email = "[email protected]",
PhoneNumber = "0800 83 83 83"
}};Instantiate the converter & convert objects
var converter = new DtoFormUrlEncoder();
FormUrlEncodedContent content = converter.ToFormUrlEncodedContent(myPerson);Consume with HttpClient (or as needed)
var client = new HttpClient();
client.PostAsync("http://www.example.com", content);