Fluent Interface for WebRequest class

 All source codes can be found as http://fluentwebrequest.codeplex.com..

In past, I usually used WebRequest for request some data from remote host. I also used it for request JSON data from Google APIs, some RSS, ATOM data from a few hosts. Everything is good for me. I only put some codes like this:

            var buffer = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("q=Queen Elizabeth II&video=on&audio=on&text=on");
 
            var webReq = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("http://www.bbc.co.uk/search/news/");
            
            webReq.Method = "POST";
          
            webReq.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";
            
            webReq.ContentLength = buffer.Length;
            
            var postData = webReq.GetRequestStream();
            
            postData.Write(buffer, 0, buffer.Length);
 
            postData.Close();
            
            var webResp = (HttpWebResponse)webReq.GetResponse();
           
            var answer = webResp.GetResponseStream();
 
            var result = string.Empty;
 
            if (answer != null)
            {
                using (var tempStream = new StreamReader(answer))
                {
                    result = tempStream.ReadToEnd();
                }
            }

 This code for POST method, and with GET method, we usually use it like this:

            const string getVars = "?q=Queen Elizabeth II&video=on&audio=on&text=on";
 
            var webReq = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(string.Format("http://www.bbc.co.uk/search/news/{0}", getVars));
      
            webReq.Method = "GET";
            
            var webResp = (HttpWebResponse)webReq.GetResponse();
            
            var answer = webResp.GetResponseStream();
            var result = string.Empty;
 
            if (answer != null)
            {
                var tempStream = new StreamReader(answer);
                result = tempStream.ReadToEnd();
            }

It will work well, no problems. WebRequest class is very cool. But we can do it better with Fluent Interface, easy to read and more semantic. Fluent Interface is a good choice for this case, we can make this code really interesting in. After took 4 hours to consider and finally I also work on it. This is just for fun, I promise with you about that. I love beautiful code and how to make the code can express itself. How do you feel about this code?

          var result = RequestSubmitter.GetInstance()
                           .WithUrl("http://www.bbc.co.uk/search/news/")
                           .Item.WithNameIs("q").ValueIs("Queen Elizabeth II")
                           .ConnectWith.Item.WithNameIs("video").ValueIs("on")
                           .ConnectWith.Item.WithNameIs("audio").ValueIs("on")
                           .ConnectWith.Item.WithNameIs("text").ValueIs("on")
                           .WithRequestTypeIs(RequestMethodType.Post)
                           .BuildUrl()
                           .GetDataFromUrl();

 It is quite Fluent Interface. You can config all things by code and you can read it well. It is only a tiny project. For your curious about this project, I will show you some classes inside it. So for easy to you to imagine, I will paste the class diagram at here:

 

 All a red arrows is a flow for Fluent Interface that I made. As you see, it flow from IRequestSubmitter => IRequestDataBuilder => IRequestItem => IRequestItemName => IRequestType => IAndConnection => IRequestDataBuilder and finally it will loop between IRequestDataBuilder and IRequestItem. It is simple, isn't it? Don't have any secret at here.

And the GET and POST method request, I built it like this:

 

I made a builder for GET and POST, and finally create a factory class for create these objects. This is enough simple and easy to understand, I think so.

Conclusion, I want to talk once again "it is only for fun and better code". You can find some examples and source code for this project at http://fluentwebrequest.codeplex.com/. And don't forget put some your comments about this project. Thanks for your read and happy coding.

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4 Comments

  • Why would anyone want do complicate things that much, just to spare several blank lines?

  • If you don't like it. No problems. But if you said like that, I think our thinking is not same to you. And you also didn't like about Fluent Interface. Maybe you just like code and run. That's it... I said this just for fun. How do you think people make NHibernate and after that somebody else make Fluent NHibernate as well? Thanks for your comment!

  • It would be great part of Reactive Extensions
    (Look at Rx FromAsyncPattern Method)

  • very good implementation of Fluent API. However, I can't find the download link in the codeplex link. Am I missing something?

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