HttpContext.Current.Request is always null in Custom Message Handler in ASP.NET Web Api

Question

I have create a custom message handler in ASP.NET web Api like below

 public class CustomMessageHandler:DelegatingHandler
    {
        protected override System.Threading.Tasks.Task<HttpResponseMessage> SendAsync(HttpRequestMessage request, System.Threading.CancellationToken cancellationToken)
        {
            return base.SendAsync(request, cancellationToken).ContinueWith(task =>
            {

                HttpRequest httpRequest = HttpContext.Current.Request;
                AuthenticationMode getAuthenticationMode = Application.GetAuthenticationMode();
                var authenticationFactory = new AuthenticationFactory();
                ICustomAuthentication authentication = authenticationFactory.CurrentAuthentication(getAuthenticationMode);
                authentication.ValidateRequest(httpRequest);
                HttpResponseMessage response = task.Result;
                response.StatusCode = HttpContext.Current.Response.StatusCode == 200 ? HttpStatusCode.OK : HttpStatusCode.Unauthorized;
                return response;
            });

        }
    }

inside this method i try to take HttpRequest but it always null.is anything i am missing? or is there any way to convert HttpRequestMessage to HttpRequest?

Answer 1

You can't rely on HttpContext being available. You need to look into alternate ways to do authentication that don't use HttpContext in Web API. If you are using Web API 2.0 you should look into Microsoft's OwinAuthenticationMiddleware.