RESTful API data deserialized as a StringWrapper

[BradleyHanna]

I am writing a function in C# to logout an Archer session using the RESTful API POST method.

public async Task PostLogoutAsync(string sessionToken)
{
    string logoutPath = "platformapi/core/security/logout";
    string logoutBody = "{\"Value\":\"" + sessionToken + "\"}";
    HttpResponseMessage httpResponseMessage = await this.httpClient.PostAsJsonAsync<string>(logoutPath, logoutBody);
}‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

The HttpClient object is configured like this:

httpClient = new HttpClient
{
    BaseAddress = new Uri(baseUrl)
};
httpClient.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Accept", "application/json,text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8");
httpClient.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Authorization", "Archer session-id=" + sessionToken);‍‍‍‍‍‍

The request method object looks like this in Visual Studio (The Uri is correct in the request message):

{Method: POST, RequestUri: 'https://Archer/RSAarcher/platformapi/core/security/logout', Version: 1.1, Content: System.Net.Http.ObjectContent`1[[System.String, mscorlib, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089]], Headers:{  Accept: application/json  Accept: text/html  Accept: application/xhtml+xml  Accept: application/xml; q=0.9  Accept: */*; q=0.8  Authorization: Archer session-id=A8A190D5E8536E2D921CF1F23C77E36A  Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8  Content-Length: 46}}‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

The body content value is rendered like this in the request message object:

{"Value":"A8A190D5E8536E2D921CF1F23C77E36A"}‍‍

Everything looks correct in the request message.  However, I am receiving a 400: Bad Request when the logout function runs.  The w3wp log entry gives the following message, "The data in the request body could not be deserialized as a StringWrapper."

What does that mean?  I did not have this issue with the login function which serialized a custom type object into the request body.  This is simply stringified JSON.  What should I do?

[DavidPetty]

Bradley, I think you need quotes around the session token in the header, this line:

httpClient.DefaultRequestHeaders.Add("Authorization", "Archer session-id=" + sessionToken);‍

From the https://community.rsa.com/docs/DOC-97463 

Request Header

Accept: application/json,text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8

Authorization: Archer session-id="session token ID from login"

Content-Type: application/json

[jsol5]

I've seen it a few different ways:

Here's 1 - 

var logoutRequest = client.BuildRequest("core/security/logout")
.WithSession(session)
.WithValue(new StringContainer { Value = session.SessionToken });

var logoutResponse = await client.PostAsync<StringContainer, ArcherResponse<bool>>(logoutRequest);

I have not seen the PostAsJsonAsync.

I don't know that you need that.

The response you get is Json and if you need to, you can parse, but if successful, I wouldn't think you'd need any info.

But, you said you're doing the same thing to log in... so, not sure why it works for one and not the other.

[BodieMinster]

The StringWrapper is the POCO (Plain Old C# Object) that the API code is using to represent the request body for the logout resource.

public WebApiRequestResult<bool> Logout(StringWrapper sessionToken)

It has a single property called Value which, in this case, is intended to hold the session token. So the JSON should look like this:

{"Value":"5D090B29BFA8E5D7E08B334164454C02"}

[jsol5]

Get it to work?

[BradleyHanna · Accepted solution]

This is my solution:

public async Task<bool> PostLogoutAsync(string sessionToken)
{
    string logoutPath = "platformapi/core/security/logout";
    string logoutBody = @"{'Value':'" + sessionToken + "'}";
    JObject bodyValue = JObject.Parse(logoutBody);

    try
    {
        HttpResponseMessage httpResponseMessage = await httpClient.PostAsJsonAsync<JObject>(logoutPath, bodyValue);

        if (!httpResponseMessage.IsSuccessStatusCode)
        {
            throw new HttpClientRequestFailedException();
        }
        else
        {
            return true;
        }
    }
    catch (Exception exception)
    {
        throw exception;
    }
}‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍‍

I parse the logoutBody string to a JObject and the body of the request is deserialized by the Archer API.  For some reason the formatting done on a plain string by PostAsJsonAsync could not be deserialized by the API.  The more complicated API requests will be easier to build as JObjects anyway, so I am going to use this solution going forward.