Request actions

Sending an HTTP request to an API is accomplished using a Screenplay Action. There are three action types available; which to use depends upon the expected response from the API. This article helps you choose the appropriate combination of Request Action and Endpoint types.

The three action types

As might be evident from their names, each request action type is used for a different kind of expected response message. In the case of SendTheHttpRequest, there is no response expected (or the response will be ignored). The other two types are for either a JSON response or a response which requires custom deserialization.

• SendTheHttpRequest
• SendTheHttpRequestAndGetJsonResponse<TResponse>
• SendTheHttpRequestAndGetTheResponse<TResponse>

Use WebApiBuilder to simplify usage

A builder/helper class is available to simplify getting the appropriate Request action; this is WebApiBuilder. The recommended way to consume this is to add using static CSF.Screenplay.WebApis.WebApiBuilder; to the source file for any Performable you write which consumes Web APIs via this extension.

When an approproate Endpoint type has been used, the WebApiBuilder class will make it very easy to select the correct action, via type inference. To get a request for an API function which is expected to return a JSON-formatted response, use the method GetTheJsonResult. To get a request for any other API function, use the method SendTheHttpRequest. Both of these methods have several overloads, for each type of endpoint which could use them.