Building XML request with RestSharp

c# xml rest restsharp

12,893

By default RestSharp is using its own serializer but it also packs the DotNetSerializer so you achieve your goal by changing the serializer like this:

var request = new RestRequest("theresource", Method.POST) 
{ 
    RequestFormat = DataFormat.Xml, 
    XmlSerializer = new RestSharp.Serializers.DotNetXmlSerializer() 
};

Then you can use a list of message objects and decorate it with XmlElement attribute:

public class messages
{
    public string accountreference { get; set; }

    public string from { get; set; }

    [XmlElement("message")]
    public List<message> messageList { get; set; }
}


public class message
{
    public string to { get; set; }

    public string body { get; set; }
}

Then you can change the last bit to add multiple messages:

request.AddBody(
    new messages
    {
        accountreference = "ref",
        from = "from",
        messageList = new List<message>() {
                new message { to = "to1", body = "body1" },
                new message { to = "to2", body = "body2" }
                }
    });

which would produce (I got the XML by checking request.Parameters[0].Value):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<messages>
  <accountreference>ref</accountreference>
  <from>from</from>
  <message>
    <to>to1</to>
    <body>body1</body>
  </message>
  <message>
    <to>to2</to>
    <body>body2</body>
  </message>
</messages>

I guess this is the XML format you've been looking for.

12,893

Author by

Glen Thomas

Currently a software engineer at Intelligent Lilli

Updated on June 16, 2022

Comments

Glen Thomas almost 2 years

I am attempting to work with a REST API using RestSharp and C#. The documentation for the API that I am using gives a sample XML request:

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>  
<messages>  
 <accountreference>EX0000000</accountreference> 
 <from>07700900654</from>
 <message>  
  <to>07700900123</to>  
  <type>SMS</type>  
  <body>Hello Mr Sands.</body>
 </message>  
 <message>  
  <to>07700900124</to>  
  <type>SMS</type>  
  <body>Hello Mr Mayo.</body>
 </message>  
</messages>

I am struggling to understand how to build the request in the format that they want (multiple elements called "message")

I have created these classes for RestSharp to serialize:

public class messages
{
    public string accountreference { get; set; }

    public string from { get; set; }

    public message message { get; set; }
}

public class message
{
    public string to { get; set; }

    public string body { get; set; }
}

And here is my RestSharp code:

var client = new RestClient("http://api.url.com/v1.0")
                         {
                             Authenticator =
                                 new HttpBasicAuthenticator(
                                 UserName,
                                 Password)
                         };

var request = new RestRequest("theresource", Method.POST) { RequestFormat = DataFormat.Xml };

request.AddBody(
    new messages
        {
            accountreference = Configuration.AccountReference,
            from = Configuration.From,
            message =
                new message { to = Configuration.Message.To, body = Configuration.Message.Body }
        });

var response = client.Execute(request);

This works great when I have only 1 message element, but I don't know how to create multiple message elements without having them nested in an array, which doesn't work with the API.