Client HTTP in .NET: From WebRequest to SocketsHttpHandler

At first glance, it seems that sending HTTP requests is very easy. However even HTTP/1.1 is hard: RFC for it contains more than 150 pages, besides browsers are already support HTTP/2 and HTTP/3. This leaves no choice: standard clients in the platform must be implemented at a high level.

On the path from .NET Framework 1.0 to .NET 5 client APIs for working with HTTP and its implementation has undergone many changes. In some versions they were good, but in some of them failed and were temporary.

During this session, Evgeny will tell the story about the development of client HTTP API in .NET, its features, and the migration of applications from Framework to Core. Speaker will also discuss some hacks useful when working with the HTTP API. We'll look into NuGet and see the wrappers over the HTTP API in terms of efficiency and cross-platform.

Audience will:

• learn about the implicit features of the HTTP protocol;
• learn how to write efficient code using the HTTP API in .NET;
• write libraries using HTTP API;
• be ready for possible performance issues when writing client-side code;
• be prepared to migrate applications from the .NET Framework and older versions of .NET Core to .NET 5;
• receive up-to-date information about HTTP/2 support in .NET, with performance tests.