How to return XML from ASP.NET 4 Web API to ASP.NET Core 2 application?

Question

I have two applications. A requesting client application written in ASP.NET Core 2 (we can call the "client"), and a responding/API application written in ASP.NET 4 Web API (we can call the "server"). The former is making a request to the latter, and I'm looking to receive, and subsequently parse, XML from the web API application.

The client is making an HTTP request using the following setup:

HttpClient httpClient = new HttpClient()
{
    BaseAddress = new Uri(communicatorUri)
};
httpClient.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Accept", "application/xml");

HttpResponseMessage responseMessage = await this.HttpClient.PutAsync(
    "api/customer",
    new StringContent(customerDetails.ToString(), Encoding.UTF8, "application/json")
);

It's sending through JSON, and expecting an XML response. The server is processing the JSON, and hopefully returning an XML response:

string response = "<note>Well formed XML string</note>";
return Ok(response);

Where this response arrives back at the client:

string responseString = await responseMessage.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
XDocument xml = XDocument.Parse(responseString);

However, every time the response arrives back, it appears as if it's been double-encoded with \"'s. For example, it may look like "\"<note attr=\\\"test\\\">Well formed XML string</note>", and so subsequently it is obviously no longer valid XML, so parsing fails via a thrown exception.

Where do I start to actually fix this? I'm a bit confused as to whether I need to make changes with my requester, or my response, or even both.

Daniel Kempner · Accepted Answer · 2018-08-10 01:16:38Z

2

Update the controller on the server:

public HttpResponseMessage Get()
{
  //process the request 
  .........

  string XML="<note><body>Message content</body></note>";
  return new HttpResponseMessage() 
  { 
    Content = new StringContent(XML, Encoding.UTF8, "application/xml") 
  };
}

answered Aug 10, 2018 at 1:16

Daniel Kempner

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1 Comment

marked-down Over a year ago

Yup, this is correct. I did try this, but I was still returning an IHttpActionResult by wrapping the above HttpResponseMessage in Ok(), which is not a great idea. Using HttpResponseMessage directly like this is the way to go.

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