MessagePack Formatters for ASP.NET Core MVC and HttpClient

Allows to use MessagePack format with ASP.NET Core MVC. If multiple formatters are configured, content negotiation is used to determine which formatter to use.

This library leverages MessagePack-CSharp library by Yoshifumi Kawai (a.k.a. neuecc).

Build status

	Stable	Pre-release
Build
NuGet ASP.NET Core MVC formatters
NuGet MediaTypeFormatter for HttpClient

Packages

• ASP.NET Core MVC formatters
• MediaTypeFormatter for HttpClient

ASP.NET Core MVC formatters

Installation

Install-Packagge Alphacloud.MessagePack.AspNetCore.Formatters

Features

• Input formatter (decode MessagePack payload).
• Output formatter (encode MessagePack payload).
• Source link support (source code on demand in debugger).

Usage

Default configuration

Default configuration uses application/x-msgpack as media typeidentificator, msgpack as file name extension and ContractlessStandardResolver.

Add services.AddMessagePack(); call to your Startup.cs / ConfigureServices

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
    services.AddMessagePack();
    // ...
}

MVC Core (ASP.NET Core 2.x)

When using minimal MVC configuration (e.g. in WebAPI service) only base services are added by default. You are responsible for configuring each of the service you are going to use.

Note: order of formatters is important - in the example below Json will be default serializer, unless MVC is configured to reject requests with unsupported media type.

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
  services.AddMvcCore(options =>
    {
        // ...
    })
    .AddDataAnnotations()
    .AddJsonOptions(options =>
    {
        options.SerializerSettings.Culture = CultureInfo.InvariantCulture;
        options.SerializerSettings.Formatting = Formatting.None;
    })
    .AddFormatterMappings()
    .AddJsonFormatters()
    .AddXmlSerializerFormatters()
    .AddMsgPackFormatters()
    ;
}

Custom configuration

Default configuration can be changed by providing callback to AddMessagePack method.

Available settings:

• MediaTypes - allows to specify additional media handled by MessagePack formatters. Default is application/x-msgpack.
• FormatterResolver - allows to customize serialization, see MsgPack object serialization for details.
• FileExtensions - allows to specify reponse format URL mapping. Default is msgpack. See sample project or Microsoft Docs for more information.
• Compression - allows to specify LZ4 compression for messages.
• UseOldSpecification - write message using old specification compatibility mode. Reading will support both old and new specifications. See Message Pack format specification.
• OmitAssemblyVersion - don't write assembly version and public key token when using typeless formatter.
• AllowAssemblyVersionMismatch - allows assembly version mistmatch when loading types during deserialization.

services.AddMessagePack(opt =>
  {
      opt.MediaTypes.Clear();
      opt.MediaTypes.Add("application/x-messagepack");
      opt.FileExtensions.Add("messagepack");
      opt.FormatterResolver = MessagePack.Resolvers.ContractlessStandardResolverAllowPrivate.Instance;
  })

MediaTypeFormatter for HttpClient

Microsoft.AspNet.WebApi.Client package contains adds support for formatting and content negotiation to System.Net.Http. It allows to add custom content serializers by extending MediaTypeFormatter class.

Installation

Install-Package Alphacloud.MessagePack.HttpFormatter

Usage

Sending request

Library contains two extension methods PostAsMsgPackAsync and PutAsMsgPackAsync. To serialize payload ContractlessStandardResolver is used, which gives a JSON-like experience.

var response = await httpClient.PostAsMsgPackAsync(uri, payload, cancellationToken).ConfigureAwait(false);

Reading response

To deserialize Msgpack response, formatter must be added to formatters collection passed to ReadAsAsync extension method.

This is recommeded method as it enables content negotiation.

var res = await response.Content.ReadAsAsync<TestModel>(_formatters, CancellationToken.None);

if you are expecting only MsgPack content, use MsgPackHttpContentExtensions.ReadMsgPackAsAsync() for HttpContent.

Samples

Sample application is located at src/samples/NetCoreWebApi. Sample Postman requests can be found at src/samples/MessagePack.postman_collection.json. To post MessagePack content, use SingleModel.msgpack located under src/samples.

References

• MessagePack format https://msgpack.org/index.html
• MessagePack-CSharp https://github.com/neuecc/MessagePack-CSharp
• AddMVC vs AddMvcCore
  • https://www.stevejgordon.co.uk/aspnetcore-anatomy-deep-dive-index
  • https://offering.solutions/blog/articles/2017/02/07/difference-between-addmvc-addmvcore/
• Content negotiation in ASP.NET Core MVC https://code-maze.com/content-negotiation-dotnet-core/
• Microsoft.AspNet.WebApi.Client https://www.nuget.org/packages/Microsoft.AspNet.WebApi.Client/
• Source Link - https://github.com/ctaggart/SourceLink
• Postman https://www.getpostman.com/downloads/