HttpRequestMessageExtensions.cs

using System;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace SomeApp.Infrastructure
{
    /// <summary>
    ///   The set of extension methods for the <see cref="HttpRequestMessage" />
    ///   class.
    /// </summary>
    /// 
    public static class HttpRequestMessageExtensions
    {
        /// <summary>
        ///   Reads the content of a request as a string.
        /// </summary>
        /// 
        /// <param name="request">The request to read the content of.</param>
        /// 
        /// <returns>The content of the request, if any; otherwise an empty string.</returns>
        /// 
        /// <remarks>
        ///   It is safe to call this method multiple times on the same request; content will be read and returned 
        ///   for each call.
        /// </remarks>
        /// 
        public static async Task<string> ReadContentAsStringAsync(this HttpRequestMessage request)
        {
            if ((request == null) || (request.Content == null))
            {
                return String.Empty;
            }

            var contentBytes = await request.Content.ReadAsByteArrayAsync();

            if ((contentBytes == null) || (contentBytes.Length == 0))
            {
                return String.Empty;
            }

            return Encoding.UTF8.GetString(contentBytes);
        }

        /// <summary>
        ///   Reads the content of a request as a string, substituting a known value in place of
        ///   any exception that should occur.
        /// </summary>
        /// 
        /// <param name="request">The request to read the content of.</param>
        /// 
        /// <returns>The content of the request, if any; otherwise an empty string.  If an exception was encountered during the operation, the <paramref name="errorValue"/> will be returned.</returns>
        /// 
        /// <remarks>
        ///   It is safe to call this method multiple times on the same request; content will be read and returned 
        ///   for each call.
        /// </remarks>
        /// 
        public static async Task<string> SafeReadContentAsStringAsync(this HttpRequestMessage request, string errorValue = "{ ERROR READING CONTENT }")
        {
            try
            {
                return await request.ReadContentAsStringAsync();
            }

            catch
            {
                return errorValue;
            }
        }
    }
}