Decompressing GZip Stream from HTTPClient Response

I am trying to connect to an api, that returns GZip encoded JSON, from a WCF service (WCF service to WCF service). I am using the HTTPClient to connect to the API and have been able to return the JSON object as a string. However I need to be able to store this returned data in a database and as such I figured the best way would be to return and store the JSON object in an array or byte or something along those lines.

What I am having trouble with specifically is the decompressing of the GZip encoding and have been trying lots of different example but still cant get it.

The below code is how I am establishing my connection and getting a response, this is the code that returns a string from the API.

public string getData(string foo)
{
    string url = "";
    HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
    HttpResponseMessage response;
    string responseJsonContent;
    try
    {
        client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));
        response = client.GetAsync(url + foo).Result;
        responseJsonContent = response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result;
        return responseJsonContent;
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
        return "";
    }
}

I have been following a few different examples like these StackExchange API, MSDN, and a couple on stackoverflow, but I haven't been able to get any of these to work for me.

What is the best way to accomplish this, am I even on the right track?

Thanks guys.

Solution 1:

Just instantiate HttpClient like this:

HttpClientHandler handler = new HttpClientHandler()
{
    AutomaticDecompression = DecompressionMethods.GZip | DecompressionMethods.Deflate
};

using (var client = new HttpClient(handler)) //see update below
{
    // your code
}

Update June 19, 2020: It's not recommended to use httpclient in a 'using' block as it might cause port exhaustion.

private static HttpClient client = null;
    
ContructorMethod()
{
   if(client == null)
   {
        HttpClientHandler handler = new HttpClientHandler()
        {
            AutomaticDecompression = DecompressionMethods.GZip | DecompressionMethods.Deflate
        };        
        client = new HttpClient(handler);
   }
// your code            
 }

If using .Net Core 2.1+, consider using IHttpClientFactory and injecting like this in your startup code.

 var timeout = Policy.TimeoutAsync<HttpResponseMessage>(
            TimeSpan.FromSeconds(60));

 services.AddHttpClient<XApiClient>().ConfigurePrimaryHttpMessageHandler(() => new HttpClientHandler
        {
            AutomaticDecompression = DecompressionMethods.GZip | DecompressionMethods.Deflate
        }).AddPolicyHandler(request => timeout);

Solution 2:

I used code from below link to decompress GZip stream.Then used the decompressed byte array to get the required JSON object. Hope it may help some one.

var readTask = result.Content.ReadAsByteArrayAsync().Result;
var decompressedData = Decompress(readTask);
string jsonString = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(decompressedData, 0, decompressedData.Length);
ResponseObjectClass responseObject = Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<ResponseObjectClass>(jsonString);

https://www.dotnetperls.com/decompress

static byte[] Decompress(byte[] gzip)
{
    using (GZipStream stream = new GZipStream(new MemoryStream(gzip), CompressionMode.Decompress))
    {
        const int size = 4096;
        byte[] buffer = new byte[size];
        using (MemoryStream memory = new MemoryStream())
        {
            int count = 0;
            do
            {
                count = stream.Read(buffer, 0, size);
                if (count > 0)
                {
                    memory.Write(buffer, 0, count);
                }
            }
            while (count > 0);
            return memory.ToArray();
        }
    }
}