Integrating a web service into an application is a common scenario.

This article
demonstrates how to consume a RESTful web service from a Xamarin.Forms application.

Representational State Transfer (REST) is an architectural style for building web services.
REST requests are made over HTTP using the same HTTP verbs that web browsers use to
retrieve web pages and to send data to servers. The verbs are:

 GET – this operation is used to retrieve data from the web service.
 POST – this operation is used to create a new item of data on the web service.
 PUT – this operation is used to update an item of data on the web service.
 PATCH – this operation is used to update an item of data on the web service by
describing a set of instructions about how the item should be modified. This verb
is not used in the sample application.
 DELETE – this operation is used to delete an item of data on the web service.

Web service APIs that adhere to REST are called RESTful APIs, and are defined using:

 A base URI.
 HTTP methods, such as GET, POST, PUT, PATCH, or DELETE.
 A media type for the data, such as JavaScript Object Notation (JSON).

RESTful web services typically use JSON messages to return data to the client. JSON is a
text-based data-interchange format that produces compact payloads, which results in
reduced bandwidth requirements when sending data. The sample application uses the
open source NewtonSoft JSON.NET library to serialize and deserialize messages.

The simplicity of REST has helped make it the primary method for accessing web
services in mobile applications.

When the sample application is run, it will connect to a locally hosted REST service, as
shown in the following screenshot:
 Note

In iOS 9 and greater, App Transport Security (ATS) enforces secure connections between
internet resources (such as the app's back-end server) and the app, thereby preventing
accidental disclosure of sensitive information. Since ATS is enabled by default in apps
built for iOS 9, all connections will be subject to ATS security requirements. If
connections do not meet these requirements, they will fail with an exception.

ATS can be opted out of if it is not possible to use the HTTPS protocol and secure
communication for internet resources. This can be achieved by updating the
app's Info.plist file. For more information see App Transport Security.

Consuming the Web Service

The REST service is written using ASP.NET Core and provides the following operations:
Operation HTTP method Relative URI Parameters
Get a list of to-do items GET /api/todoitems/
Create a new to-do item POST /api/todoitems/ A JSON forma
Update a to-do item PUT /api/todoitems/ A JSON forma
Delete a to-do item DELETE /api/todoitems/{id}

The majority of the URIs include the TodoItem ID in the path. For example, to delete
the TodoItem whose ID is 6bb8a868-dba1-4f1a-93b7-24ebce87e243, the client sends a
DELETE request to http://hostname/api/todoitems/6bb8a868-dba1-4f1a-93b7-24ebce87e243 .
For more information about the data model used in the sample application,
see Modeling the data.

When the Web API framework receives a request it routes the request to an action.
These actions are simply public methods in the TodoItemsController class. The
framework uses a routing table to determine which action to invoke in response to a
request, which is shown in the following code example:

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config.Routes.MapHttpRoute(
name: "TodoItemsApi",
routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{id}",
defaults: new { controller="todoitems", id = RouteParameter.Optional }
);

The routing table contains a route template, and when the Web API framework receives
an HTTP request, it tries to match the URI against the route template in the routing
table. If a matching route cannot be found the client receives a 404 (not found) error. If
a matching route is found, Web API selects the controller and the action as follows:

 To find the controller, Web API adds "controller" to the value of

the {controller} variable.
 To find the action, Web API looks at the HTTP method and looks at controller
actions that are decorated with the same HTTP method as an attribute.
 The {id} placeholder variable is mapped to an action parameter.

The REST service uses basic authentication. For more information see Authenticating a
RESTful web service. For more information about ASP.NET Web API routing, see Routing
in ASP.NET Web API on the ASP.NET website. For more information about building the
REST service using ASP.NET Core, see Creating Backend Services for Native Mobile
Applications.
The HttpClient class is used to send and receive requests over HTTP. It provides
functionality for sending HTTP requests and receiving HTTP responses from a URI
identified resource. Each request is sent as an asynchronous operation. For more
information about asynchronous operations, see Async Support Overview.

The HttpResponseMessage class represents an HTTP response message received from the

web service after an HTTP request has been made. It contains information about the
response, including the status code, headers, and any body. The HttpContent class
represents the HTTP body and content headers, such as Content-Type and Content-
Encoding. The content can be read using any of the ReadAs methods, such
as ReadAsStringAsync and ReadAsByteArrayAsync, depending upon the format of the data.

Creating the HTTPClient Object

The HttpClient instance is declared at the class-level so that the object lives for as long
as the application needs to make HTTP requests, as shown in the following code
example:

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public class RestService : IRestService
{
HttpClient _client;
...

public RestService ()
{
_client = new HttpClient ();
}
...
}
Retrieving Data

The HttpClient.GetAsync method is used to send the GET request to the web service

specified by the URI, and then receive the response from the web service, as shown in
the following code example:

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public async Task<List<TodoItem>> RefreshDataAsync ()
{
...
var uri = new Uri (string.Format (Constants.TodoItemsUrl, string.Empty));
...
 var response = await _client.GetAsync (uri);
if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
{
var content = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync ();
Items = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject <List<TodoItem>> (content);
}
...
}

The REST service sends an HTTP status code in

the HttpResponseMessage.IsSuccessStatusCode  property, to indicate whether the HTTP
request succeeded or failed. For this operation the REST service sends HTTP status code
200 (OK) in the response, which indicates that the request succeeded and that the
requested information is in the response.

If the HTTP operation was successful, the content of the response is read, for display.
The HttpResponseMessage.Content property represents the content of the HTTP response,
and the HttpContent.ReadAsStringAsync method asynchronously writes the HTTP content
to a string. This content is then converted from JSON to a List of TodoItem instances.

Creating Data

The HttpClient.PostAsync method is used to send the POST request to the web service

specified by the URI, and then to receive the response from the web service, as shown in
the following code example:

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public async Task SaveTodoItemAsync (TodoItem item, bool isNewItem = false)
{
var uri = new Uri (string.Format (Constants.TodoItemsUrl, string.Empty));

...
var json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject (item);
var content = new StringContent (json, Encoding.UTF8, "application/json");

HttpResponseMessage response = null;

if (isNewItem)
{
response = await _client.PostAsync (uri, content);
}
...

if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
 {
Debug.WriteLine (@"\tTodoItem successfully saved.");

}
...
}

The TodoItem instance is converted to a JSON payload for sending to the web service.

This payload is then embedded in the body of the HTTP content that will be sent to the
web service before the request is made with the PostAsync method.

The REST service sends an HTTP status code in

the HttpResponseMessage.IsSuccessStatusCode  property, to indicate whether the HTTP
request succeeded or failed. The common responses for this operation are:

 201 (CREATED) – the request resulted in a new resource being created before
the response was sent.
 400 (BAD REQUEST) – the request is not understood by the server.
 409 (CONFLICT) – the request could not be carried out because of a conflict on
the server.
Updating Data

The HttpClient.PutAsync method is used to send the PUT request to the web service

specified by the URI, and then receive the response from the web service, as shown in
the following code example:

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public async Task SaveTodoItemAsync (TodoItem item, bool isNewItem = false)
{
...
response = await _client.PutAsync (uri, content);
...
}

The operation of the PutAsync method is identical to the PostAsync method that's used

for creating data in the web service. However, the possible responses sent from the web
service differ.

The REST service sends an HTTP status code in

the HttpResponseMessage.IsSuccessStatusCode  property, to indicate whether the HTTP
request succeeded or failed. The common responses for this operation are:
  204 (NO CONTENT) – the request has been successfully processed and the
response is intentionally blank.
 400 (BAD REQUEST) – the request is not understood by the server.
 404 (NOT FOUND) – the requested resource does not exist on the server.
Deleting Data

The HttpClient.DeleteAsync method is used to send the DELETE request to the web

service specified by the URI, and then receive the response from the web service, as
shown in the following code example:

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public async Task DeleteTodoItemAsync (string id)
{
var uri = new Uri (string.Format (Constants.TodoItemsUrl, id));
...
var response = await _client.DeleteAsync (uri);
if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
{
Debug.WriteLine (@"\tTodoItem successfully deleted.");
}
...
}

The REST service sends an HTTP status code in

the HttpResponseMessage.IsSuccessStatusCode  property, to indicate whether the HTTP
request succeeded or failed. The common responses for this operation are:

 204 (NO CONTENT) – the request has been successfully processed and the
response is intentionally blank.
 400 (BAD REQUEST) – the request is not understood by the server.
 404 (NOT FOUND) – the requested resource does not exist on the server.