Status Code 500 when testing HttpClient in ASP.NET Web Api

Question

I am trying to work through an example using HttpClient from the ASP.NET Web Api but I am receiving a status code 500 in the response and I don't know why.

I have the following code in a test:

        var baseAddress = new Uri("http://localhost:54997");
        var config = new HttpSelfHostConfiguration(baseAddress);
        var server = new HttpSelfHostServer(config);

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

        using (var client = new HttpClient(server))
        {

            client.BaseAddress = baseAddress;
            client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));

            var response = client.GetAsync("/api/user/getUserDetails").Result;               
        }

My controller method is like this:

    [HttpGet]
    [ActionName("getUserDetails")]
    public string GetUserDetails()
    {
        return "hello";
    }

The controller action responds fine in Fiddler.

The error seems to be thrown in the Content property of the response.

[System.Net.Http.ObjectContent<System.Web.Http.HttpError>] = {System.Net.Http.ObjectContent<System.Web.Http.HttpError>}

I'm sorry that's not much to go on.

EDIT Please see Darin's answer below. I also put the code in a console application and it works fine - so why not in the test project?

Can someone point me in the right direction of what might be wrong please?

Turn on tracing and add a ConsoleListener and you should see where the problem appears. — Darrel Miller
– Darrel Miller, Commented May 16, 2013 at 13:27
After getting the response in the above code, can you do response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result to see if you get more details about the error? Also if there are no error details, can you try setting the error detail policy to Always config.IncludeErrorDetailPolicy = IncludeErrorDetailPolicy.Always(this shouldn't matter as its localhost, but you can give it a try) — Kiran
– Kiran, Commented May 16, 2013 at 15:31
Take a look at my question and answer here: stackoverflow.com/q/23438416/1828879 Your BaseAddress and relative URIs have the wrong trailing and leading slashes. — Timothy Shields
– Timothy Shields, Commented Jun 13, 2014 at 18:28

Darin Dimitrov · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-16 13:39:27Z

1

Weird, the following Console application works perfectly fine for me:

using System;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Net.Http.Headers;
using System.Web.Http;
using System.Web.Http.SelfHost;

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        var baseAddress = new Uri("http://localhost:54997");
        var config = new HttpSelfHostConfiguration(baseAddress);
        var server = new HttpSelfHostServer(config);
        ((HttpConfiguration)config).Routes.MapHttpRoute(
            name: "default",
            routeTemplate: "api/{controller}/{action}/{id}",
            defaults: new { id = RouteParameter.Optional }
        );

        using (var client = new HttpClient(server))
        {
            client.BaseAddress = baseAddress;
            client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));
            var response = client.GetAsync("/api/user/getUserDetails").Result;
            Console.WriteLine(response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result);
        }
    }
}

public class UserController : ApiController
{
    [HttpGet]
    [ActionName("getUserDetails")]
    public string GetUserDetails()
    {
        return "hello";
    }
}

You might inspect the response text returned by the server to see if you could gather more information about the problem:

Console.WriteLine(response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result);

answered May 16, 2013 at 13:39

Darin Dimitrov

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2 Comments

davy Over a year ago

Thanks. I tried the same and it works so why not from the test project?

Darin Dimitrov Over a year ago

Maybe you have something in this so called test project that is preventing it from working. Pretty hard to tell what without showing your code. I have showed you a fully working example. Now if you expect me guessing what you have in your test project as code, well, sorry, it ain't gonna happen. I don't have a magic crystal ball allowing me to read other people's minds/code.

Eric Langland · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-27 01:49:09Z

1

This in-memory hosting thing is awesome. BUT.....

It seems that if the controller you're testing uses anything in your app config, it fails. For some reason, my in-memory server returns nulls for all; app config values in the web.config.

Does anyone know a way to have the HttpServer read those?

It works fine when hosted in IIS express....I only see the issue when I host in memory.

Help! :)

edited Feb 27, 2014 at 1:49

answered Feb 27, 2014 at 1:42

Eric Langland

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Comments

Darrel Miller · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-17 01:19:21Z

I'm not sure why the Self host server is failing in your test project, but you really don't need it anyway. Try the following using an in-memory host:

    var config = new HttpConfiguration();
    var server = new HttpServer(config);

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

    using (var client = new HttpClient(server))
    {

        client.BaseAddress = baseAddress;
        client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));

        var response = client.GetAsync("/api/user/getUserDetails").Result;               
    }

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