In .Net Framework (prior to .Net Core), HttpClient was something of a pain. You essentially kept it around in a static variable. If you didn’t, and used too many of them, you could end up issues such as socket exhaustion.

I think most people got around this by implementing their own version of a HttpClientFactory… but now you don’t need to.

In this post, I’m covering the simplest possible use case inside an Asp.Net Core application. The articles linked at the bottom of this post go into much more detail.

Usage

The first step to using the HttpClientFactory is to add it to the IoC:

        public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
        {
            services.AddControllersWithViews();
            services.AddHttpClient();
        }

Then, simply inject it into your controller; for example:

        public HomeController(ILogger<HomeController> logger,
            IHttpClientFactory clientFactory)
        {
            \_logger = logger;
            \_clientFactory = clientFactory;
        }

Finally, you request a client like this:

var client = \_clientFactory.CreateClient();

Then you can use it as a normal HttpClient:

var result = await client.GetAsync($"https://localhost:22222/endpoint");

References

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/aspnet/core/fundamentals/http-requests?view=aspnetcore-3.1

https://www.stevejgordon.co.uk/introduction-to-httpclientfactory-aspnetcore