Why is there both a System.Net.Http and System.Web.Http namespace?

C#asp.net.Net

C# Problem Overview


Just a simple question as I'm studying the various class libraries available in .NET. I noticed that there's a System.Net.Http namespace and a System.Web.Http namespace.

  • What purpose(s) do both namespaces serve?
  • What were the motivations for creating two seemingly ambiguous namespaces?
  • Is there any history I should know about or is one of the namespaces "deprecated"?

System.Net.Http, System.Web.Http

C# Solutions


Solution 1 - C#

System.Net.Http is for client-side HTTP programming. System.Web.Http is for server-side HTTP programming.

Solution 2 - C#

System.Net.Http relates to network programming while System.Web.Http relates specifically to programming for the web.

Solution 3 - C#

"System.Web.Http" is used for creating WebAPIs.

"System.Net.Http" is used for consuming WebAPIs (using HttpClient class)

Solution 4 - C#

From my experience, the separation between the two namespaces becomes clear when you look at the difference between self hosted webapi services vs IIS-hosted. Self hosted only requires System.Http, whilst IIS hosted needs both. See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12042853/difference-between-maphttproute-and-maproute for a similar discussion and useful links.

So, the reason there are two is so that you can create a self-hosted web service that doesn't depend on the entire ASP.NET stack.

Neither of them are deprecated.

I haven't seen an official Microsoft explanation for this, but that's the best I've been able to find.

Solution 5 - C#

System.Web heavily depends on IIS web server, which can only be hosted on a Windows machine. As Microsoft is heading to open source and is starting to support multiple platforms like Linux and Mac, they need to extract their functionality which will be independent of IIS server. As a result, System.Net is independent of IIS features and is deployable to different platforms.

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Content TypeOriginal AuthorOriginal Content on Stackoverflow
QuestionAlexander TrauzziView Question on Stackoverflow
Solution 1 - C#Max ToroView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 2 - C#jmcilhinneyView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 3 - C#Reyan ChougleView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 4 - C#Dan LingView Answer on Stackoverflow
Solution 5 - C#NautyView Answer on Stackoverflow