How to consume REST api in Xamarin.iOS? - rest

Question

I have made a REST API and I want to use it using my Xamarin.iOS application.
Basically I want to call the API from my Xamarin application by sending some arguments to one of my API's function.
I tried the resources available at Xamarin's official website, but I a newbie so I cannot understand how it was done.
The REST API is hosted locally by the network I am using. It is not hosted at a static IP.
Kindly guide me.

Answer 1

You don't really need a fancy plugin if you just want to hit Web Endpoints. I simply use the basic WebRequest API.
var request = WebRequest.CreateHttp(YOUR_URL_HERE);
request.Method = "GET";
request.ContentType = "application/JSON";
request.BeginGetResponse(ResponseComplete, request);
... and then your response method can be something along the lines of...
protected void ResponseComplete(IAsyncResult result)
{
try
{
var request = result.AsyncState as HttpWebRequest;
if (request != null)
{
Debug.WriteLine("Completed query: " + request.RequestUri);
using (var streamReader = new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream()))
{
var result = streamReader.ReadToEnd();
Debug.WriteLine("Query Result: " + result);
}
}
}
}
... and if you need to post data you can add request.BeginGetRequestStream(PostData, request); before request.BeginGetResponse(ResponseComplete, request); and make your GetRequestStream handling method something along the lines of...
protected void PostData(IAsyncResult result)
{
var request = result.AsyncState as HttpWebRequest;
if (request != null)
{
using (var postStream = request.EndGetRequestStream(result))
{
var json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(DATA_TO_POST);
Debug.WriteLine("Posting data: " + json);
var byteArray = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(json);
postStream.Write(byteArray, 0, byteArray.Length);
}
}
}

Answer 2

I would recommend Refit, you can install it as a NuGet package. Its pritty simple to use.
Refit allows us to define an interface that describes the API that we're calling, and the Refit framework handles making the call to the service and deserializing the return.
Have a look at this great blog post on how to set it up and other packages that might help you out. http://arteksoftware.com/resilient-network-services-with-xamarin/
I have used RestSharp before but Refit is alot easier to get running.