Logging request/response messages when using HttpClient

An example of how you could do this:

Some notes:

• LoggingHandler intercepts the request before it handles it to HttpClientHandler which finally writes to the wire.

• PostAsJsonAsync extension internally creates an ObjectContent and when ReadAsStringAsync() is called in the LoggingHandler, it causes the formatter inside ObjectContent to serialize the object and that's the reason you are seeing the content in json.

Logging handler:

public class LoggingHandler : DelegatingHandler
{
    public LoggingHandler(HttpMessageHandler innerHandler)
        : base(innerHandler)
    {
    }

    protected override async Task<HttpResponseMessage> SendAsync(HttpRequestMessage request, CancellationToken cancellationToken)
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Request:");
        Console.WriteLine(request.ToString());
        if (request.Content != null)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(await request.Content.ReadAsStringAsync());
        }
        Console.WriteLine();

        HttpResponseMessage response = await base.SendAsync(request, cancellationToken);

        Console.WriteLine("Response:");
        Console.WriteLine(response.ToString());
        if (response.Content != null)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync());
        }
        Console.WriteLine();

        return response;
    }
}

Chain the above LoggingHandler with HttpClient:

HttpClient client = new HttpClient(new LoggingHandler(new HttpClientHandler()));
HttpResponseMessage response = client.PostAsJsonAsync(baseAddress + "/api/values", "Hello, World!").Result;

Output:

Request:
Method: POST, RequestUri: 'http://kirandesktop:9095/api/values', Version: 1.1, Content: System.Net.Http.ObjectContent`1[
[System.String, mscorlib, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089]], Headers:
{
  Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
}
"Hello, World!"

Response:
StatusCode: 200, ReasonPhrase: 'OK', Version: 1.1, Content: System.Net.Http.StreamContent, Headers:
{
  Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2013 20:21:26 GMT
  Server: Microsoft-HTTPAPI/2.0
  Content-Length: 15
  Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
}
"Hello, World!"

NOTE: This works with .NET Framework, and not .NET Core or .NET 5+.

See http://mikehadlow.blogspot.com/2012/07/tracing-systemnet-to-debug-http-clients.html

To configure a System.Net listener to output to both the console and a log file, add the following to your assembly configuration file:

<system.diagnostics>
  <trace autoflush="true" />
  <sources>
    <source name="System.Net">
      <listeners>
        <add name="MyTraceFile"/>
        <add name="MyConsole"/>
      </listeners>
    </source>
  </sources>
  <sharedListeners>
    <add
      name="MyTraceFile"
      type="System.Diagnostics.TextWriterTraceListener"
      initializeData="System.Net.trace.log" />
    <add name="MyConsole" type="System.Diagnostics.ConsoleTraceListener" />
  </sharedListeners>
  <switches>
    <add name="System.Net" value="Verbose" />
  </switches>
</system.diagnostics>