Using the Networking package

The Networking package contains a collection of helpers for applications that use HttpClient for making network requests to APIs.

Making simple network requests using NetworkRequest instances

The Network package comes with a variety of NetworkRequest types that can be used to perform network requests without a lot of additional overhead.

The current available in-box NetworkRequest types are:

• JsonGetNetworkRequest, for making a HTTP GET request with a JSON response, deserializing to a specified type.
• JsonPostNetworkRequest, for making a HTTP POST request with a JSON payload, and a JSON response.
• JsonPutNetworkRequest, for making a HTTP PUT request with a JSON payload, and a JSON response.
• JsonPatchNetworkRequest, for making a HTTP PATCH request with a JSON payload, and a JSON response.
• JsonDeleteNetworkRequest, for making a HTTP DELETE request with a JSON response.
• StreamGetNetworkRequest, for making a HTTP GET request with a data stream response.

Each one needs a HttpClient instance, a URL to call, and any additional headers that may be required for the request.

The example below shows how you can use a JsonGetNetworkRequest to make a request to an API endpoint and retrieve data with a specified type.

public async Task<Profile> GetMyProfileAsync(CancellationToken cancellationToken = default)
{
    JsonGetNetworkRequest request = new JsonGetNetworkRequest(
        new HttpClient(), 
        "https://jamescroft.co.uk/api/profile", 
        this.GetRequestHeaders());

    return await request.ExecuteAsync<Profile>(cancellationToken);
}

The JsonPostNetworkRequest, JsonPutNetworkRequest, and JsonPatchNetworkRequest types all have an additional parameter which require a JSON string.

public async Task UpdateMyProfileAsync(Profile profile, CancellationToken cancellationToken = default)
{
    JsonPutNetworkRequest request = new JsonPutNetworkRequest(
        new HttpClient(), 
        "https://jamescroft.co.uk/api/profile", 
        JsonConvert.SerializeObject(profile),
        this.GetRequestHeaders());

    await request.ExecuteAsync<bool>(cancellationToken);
}

Queuing your network requests using NetworkRequestManager

Built on the MADE NetworkRequest type, the MADE.Networking.Http.NetworkRequestManager is capable of managing a queue of multiple concurrent network requests.

This allows you to publish network requests and not need to worry about when you might receive a response. The implementation handles that for you with the use of success and error callback actions.

This can be achieved by registering your NetworkRequest instances with an instance of the NetworkRequestManager.

Note, to make sure network requests are processed, the NetworkRequestManager.Start() method must be called.

private INetworkRequestManager NetworkManager { get; }

public void GetMyProfileAsync()
{
    JsonGetNetworkRequest request = new JsonGetNetworkRequest(
        new HttpClient(), 
        "https://jamescroft.co.uk/api/profile", 
        this.GetRequestHeaders());

    NetworkManager.AddOrUpdate<JsonGetNetworkRequest, Profile>(
        request, 
        this.UpdateProfileDetails);
}

public void UpdateProfileDetails(Profile profile)
{
    // Update UI elements
}

NetworkRequest objects have a Guid identifier also, so if you need to update a pending request with different data or a change in URL, you can do simply by recalling NetworkManager.AddOrUpdate passing in a network request with the same ID.

The AddOrUpdate method has overloads for providing a success callback, as well as an error callback. This allows you to make decisions in your code to handle a successful or failed network request.