Logging request/response messages when using HttpClient

I have a method that does a POST like below

var response = await client.PostAsJsonAsync(url, entity);

if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
{
		// read the response as strongly typed object
		return await response.Content.ReadAsAsync<T>();
}

My question is how can I obtain the actual JSON that got posted from the entity object. I would like to log the JSON that gets POSTED, so it will be nice to have that without me having to do a json serialize myself.

An example of how you could do this:

Some notes:

• LoggingHandler intercepts the request before it handles it to HttpClientHandler which finally writes to the wire.

• PostAsJsonAsync extension internally creates an ObjectContent and when ReadAsStringAsync() is called in the LoggingHandler, it causes the formatter inside ObjectContent to serialize the object and that's the reason you are seeing the content in json.

Logging handler:

public class LoggingHandler : DelegatingHandler
{
    public LoggingHandler(HttpMessageHandler innerHandler)
        : base(innerHandler)
    {
    }

    protected override async Task<HttpResponseMessage> SendAsync(HttpRequestMessage request, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Request:");
        Console.WriteLine(request.ToString());
        if (request.Content != null)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(await request.Content.ReadAsStringAsync());
        }
        Console.WriteLine();

        HttpResponseMessage response = await base.SendAsync(request, cancellationToken);

        Console.WriteLine("Response:");
        Console.WriteLine(response.ToString());
        if (response.Content != null)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync());
        }
        Console.WriteLine();

        return response;
    }
}

Chain the above LoggingHandler with HttpClient:

HttpClient client = new HttpClient(new LoggingHandler(new HttpClientHandler()));
HttpResponseMessage response = client.PostAsJsonAsync(baseAddress + "/api/values", "Hello, World!").Result;

Output:

Request:
Method: POST, RequestUri: 'http://kirandesktop:9095/api/values', Version: 1.1, Content: System.Net.Http.ObjectContent`1[
[System.String, mscorlib, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089]], Headers:
{
  Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
}
"Hello, World!"

Response:
StatusCode: 200, ReasonPhrase: 'OK', Version: 1.1, Content: System.Net.Http.StreamContent, Headers:
{
  Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2013 20:21:26 GMT
  Server: Microsoft-HTTPAPI/2.0
  Content-Length: 15
  Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
}
"Hello, World!"

See http://mikehadlow.blogspot.com/2012/07/tracing-systemnet-to-debug-http-clients.html

To configure a System.Net listener to output to both the console and a log file, add the following to your assembly configuration file:

<system.diagnostics>
  <trace autoflush="true" />
  <sources>
    <source name="System.Net">
      <listeners>
        <add name="MyTraceFile"/>
        <add name="MyConsole"/>
      </listeners>
    </source>
  </sources>
  <sharedListeners>
    <add
      name="MyTraceFile"
      type="System.Diagnostics.TextWriterTraceListener"
      initializeData="System.Net.trace.log" />
    <add name="MyConsole" type="System.Diagnostics.ConsoleTraceListener" />
  </sharedListeners>
  <switches>
    <add name="System.Net" value="Verbose" />
  </switches>
</system.diagnostics>

Network tracing also available for next objects (see article on msdn)

• System.Net.Sockets Some public methods of the Socket, TcpListener, TcpClient, and Dns classes
• System.Net Some public methods of the HttpWebRequest, HttpWebResponse, FtpWebRequest, and FtpWebResponse classes, and SSL debug information (invalid certificates, missing issuers list, and client certificate errors.)
• System.Net.HttpListener Some public methods of the HttpListener, HttpListenerRequest, and HttpListenerResponse classes.
• System.Net.Cache Some private and internal methods in System.Net.Cache.
• System.Net.Http Some public methods of the HttpClient, DelegatingHandler, HttpClientHandler, HttpMessageHandler, MessageProcessingHandler, and WebRequestHandler classes.
• System.Net.WebSockets.WebSocket Some public methods of the ClientWebSocket and WebSocket classes.

Put next lines of code to the configuration file

<configuration>  
  <system.diagnostics>  
    <sources>  
      <source name="System.Net" tracemode="includehex" maxdatasize="1024">  
        <listeners>  
          <add name="System.Net"/>  
        </listeners>  
      </source>  
      <source name="System.Net.Cache">  
        <listeners>  
          <add name="System.Net"/>  
        </listeners>  
      </source>  
      <source name="System.Net.Http">  
        <listeners>  
          <add name="System.Net"/>  
        </listeners>  
      </source>  
      <source name="System.Net.Sockets">  
        <listeners>  
          <add name="System.Net"/>  
        </listeners>  
      </source>  
      <source name="System.Net.WebSockets">  
        <listeners>  
          <add name="System.Net"/>  
        </listeners>  
      </source>  
    </sources>  
    <switches>  
      <add name="System.Net" value="Verbose"/>  
      <add name="System.Net.Cache" value="Verbose"/>  
      <add name="System.Net.Http" value="Verbose"/>  
      <add name="System.Net.Sockets" value="Verbose"/>  
      <add name="System.Net.WebSockets" value="Verbose"/>  
    </switches>  
    <sharedListeners>  
      <add name="System.Net"  
        type="System.Diagnostics.TextWriterTraceListener"  
        initializeData="network.log"  
      />  
    </sharedListeners>  
    <trace autoflush="true"/>  
  </system.diagnostics>  
</configuration>  

The easiest solution would be to use Wireshark and trace the HTTP tcp flow.