Replace cURL with HttpClient

Question

I have seen How do I replace curl invoke with HttpClient object invoke or some similar? but it didn't answer my question. I have been given the below cURL command by our vendor, with some optional parameters, and instructions to use a CRON job to run it. It seems it would be more efficient to send the CSV my C# code is generating via HttpClient rather than dropping the CSV somewhere and going through the CRON job business. The C# I am writing will be part of an automation service we already have in place.

Here is the cURL:

curl -F "passkey=<PASS KEY>" -F "uploadFile=@<PATH_TO_YOUR_CSV_FILE>" https://td-setup.xxxxxx.com/<DOMAIN NAME>/csvupload

There is a loadAll parameter that I will want to use.

I have added Microsoft.Net.Http -Version 2.2.22 to my project via NuGet, and now find myself not sure what to do next. Sadly, this is all the further I've gotten:

       string baseAddress = String.Format("{0}/{1}/{2}", taskConfig.Upload.BaseUrl, domain.Username, taskConfig.Upload.UploadLocation);
        using (HttpClient client = new HttpClient)
        {

        }

I typically like to have demonstrated more of an effort before asking her help, but I'm over my head. How do I begin? Add the passkey? the loadAll parameter?

score 4 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 22 '14 at 23:37

The curl -F option indicates POST data using the multipart/form-data content type as per RFC 2388.

So you need to create a MultipartFormDataContent object:

var formDataContent= new MultipartFormDataContent();

Attach your password string to it:

// passkey is the param name from the curl script
formDataContent.Add(new HttpStringContent("yourpasswordhere"), "passkey");

Attach your CSV file content to it:

byte[] csvBytes = File.ReadAllBytes("yourcsvfile.csv");
var csvContent = new ByteArrayContent(csvBytes);

// uploadFile is the param name specified in the curl script
formDataContent.Add(csvContent, "uploadFile", "filename.csv");

You don't explain how the loadAll parameter is used in curl but lets pretend it's a 'true'/'false' string parameter:

formDataContent.Add(new HttpStringContent("true"), "loadAll");

Finally post the form:

string url = "https://td-setup.xxxxxx.com/<DOMAIN NAME>/csvupload";
var client = new HttpClient();
await client.PostAsync(url, formDataContent);

Replace cURL with HttpClient

1 Answers1