POSTing JSON to URL via WebClient in C#

The question is already answered but I think I've found the solution that is simpler and more relevant to the question title, here it is:

var cli = new WebClient();
cli.Headers[HttpRequestHeader.ContentType] = "application/json";
string response = cli.UploadString("http://some/address", "{some:\"json data\"}");

PS: In the most of .net implementations, but not in all WebClient is IDisposable, so of cource it is better to do 'using' or 'Dispose' on it. However in this particular case it is not really necessary.


The following example demonstrates how to POST a JSON via WebClient.UploadString Method:

var vm = new { k = "1", a = "2", c = "3", v=  "4" };
using (var client = new WebClient())
{
   var dataString = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(vm);
   client.Headers.Add(HttpRequestHeader.ContentType, "application/json");
   client.UploadString(new Uri("http://www.contoso.com/1.0/service/action"), "POST", dataString);
}

Prerequisites: Json.NET library


You need a json serializer to parse your content, probably you already have it, for your initial question on how to make a request, this might be an idea:

var baseAddress = "http://www.example.com/1.0/service/action";

var http = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(new Uri(baseAddress));
http.Accept = "application/json";
http.ContentType = "application/json";
http.Method = "POST";

string parsedContent = <<PUT HERE YOUR JSON PARSED CONTENT>>;
ASCIIEncoding encoding = new ASCIIEncoding();
Byte[] bytes = encoding.GetBytes(parsedContent);

Stream newStream = http.GetRequestStream();
newStream.Write(bytes, 0, bytes.Length);
newStream.Close();

var response = http.GetResponse();

var stream = response.GetResponseStream();
var sr = new StreamReader(stream);
var content = sr.ReadToEnd();

hope it helps,