AspNetCore.Docs/aspnetcore/fundamentals/http-context.md

title	author	description	monikerRange	ms.author	ms.custom	ms.date	no-loc	uid
Access HttpContext in ASP.NET Core	coderandhiker	HttpContext in ASP.NET Core. HttpContext isn't thread-safe and can throw NullReferenceException.	>= aspnetcore-3.1	riande	mvc	5/5/2020	Home Privacy Kestrel appsettings.json ASP.NET Core Identity cookie Cookie Blazor Blazor Server Blazor WebAssembly Identity Let's Encrypt Razor SignalR	fundamentals/httpcontext

Access HttpContext in ASP.NET Core

:::moniker range=">= aspnetcore-6.0"

ASP.NET Core apps access HttpContext through the xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http.IHttpContextAccessor interface and its default implementation xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http.HttpContextAccessor. It's only necessary to use IHttpContextAccessor when you need access to the HttpContext inside a service.

Use HttpContext from Razor Pages

The Razor Pages xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.RazorPages.PageModel exposes the xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.RazorPages.PageModel.HttpContext?displayProperty=nameWithType property:

public class IndexModel : PageModel
{
    public void OnGet()
    {
        var message = HttpContext.Request.PathBase;

        // ...
    }
}

The same property can be used in the corresponding Razor Page View:

@page
@model IndexModel

@{
    var message = HttpContext.Request.PathBase;
    
    // ...
}

Use HttpContext from a Razor view in MVC

Razor views in the MVC pattern expose the HttpContext via the xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Razor.RazorPage.Context%2A?displayProperty=nameWithType property on the view. The following example retrieves the current username in an intranet app using Windows Authentication:

@{
    var username = Context.User.Identity.Name;
    
    // ...
}

Use HttpContext from a controller

Controllers expose the xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ControllerBase.HttpContext%2A?displayProperty=nameWithType property:

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    public IActionResult About()
    {
        var pathBase = HttpContext.Request.PathBase;

        // ...

        return View();
    }
}

Use HttpContext from middleware

When working with custom middleware components, HttpContext is passed into the Invoke or InvokeAsync method:

public class MyCustomMiddleware
{
    // ...

    public async Task InvokeAsync(HttpContext context)
    {
        // ...
    }
}

Use HttpContext from custom components

For other framework and custom components that require access to HttpContext, the recommended approach is to register a dependency using the built-in Dependency Injection (DI) container. The DI container supplies the IHttpContextAccessor to any classes that declare it as a dependency in their constructors:

var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

builder.Services.AddControllersWithViews();
builder.Services.AddHttpContextAccessor();
builder.Services.AddTransient<IUserRepository, UserRepository>();

In the following example:

• UserRepository declares its dependency on IHttpContextAccessor.
• The dependency is supplied when DI resolves the dependency chain and creates an instance of UserRepository.

public class UserRepository : IUserRepository
{
    private readonly IHttpContextAccessor _httpContextAccessor;

    public UserRepository(IHttpContextAccessor httpContextAccessor) =>
        _httpContextAccessor = httpContextAccessor;

    public void LogCurrentUser()
    {
        var username = _httpContextAccessor.HttpContext.User.Identity.Name;
        
        // ...
    }
}

HttpContext access from a background thread

HttpContext isn't thread-safe. Reading or writing properties of the HttpContext outside of processing a request can result in a xref:System.NullReferenceException.

[!NOTE] If your app generates sporadic NullReferenceException errors, review parts of the code that start background processing or that continue processing after a request completes. Look for mistakes, such as defining a controller method as async void.

To safely do background work with HttpContext data:

• Copy the required data during request processing.
• Pass the copied data to a background task.
• Do not reference HttpContext data in parallel tasks. Extract the data needed from the context before starting the parallel tasks.

To avoid unsafe code, never pass HttpContext into a method that does background work. Pass the required data instead. In the following example, SendEmail calls SendEmailCoreAsync to start sending an email. The value of the X-Correlation-Id header is passed to SendEmailCoreAsync instead of the HttpContext. Code execution doesn't wait for SendEmailCoreAsync to complete:

public class EmailController : Controller
{
    public IActionResult SendEmail(string email)
    {
        var correlationId = HttpContext.Request.Headers["X-Correlation-Id"].ToString();

        _ = SendEmailCoreAsync(correlationId);

        return View();
    }

    private async Task SendEmailCoreAsync(string correlationId)
    {
        // ...
    }
}

Blazor and shared state

[!INCLUDE]

:::moniker-end

:::moniker range="< aspnetcore-6.0"

ASP.NET Core apps access HttpContext through the xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http.IHttpContextAccessor interface and its default implementation xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http.HttpContextAccessor. It's only necessary to use IHttpContextAccessor when you need access to the HttpContext inside a service.

Use HttpContext from Razor Pages

The Razor Pages xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.RazorPages.PageModel exposes the xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.RazorPages.PageModel.HttpContext?displayProperty=nameWithType property:

public class IndexModel : PageModel
{
    public void OnGet()
    {
        var message = HttpContext.Request.PathBase;

        // ...
    }
}

The same property can be used in the corresponding Razor Page View:

@page
@model IndexModel

@{
    var message = HttpContext.Request.PathBase;
    
    // ...
}

Use HttpContext from a Razor view in MVC

Razor views in the MVC pattern expose the HttpContext via the xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.Razor.RazorPage.Context%2A?displayProperty=nameWithType property on the view. The following example retrieves the current username in an intranet app using Windows Authentication:

@{
    var username = Context.User.Identity.Name;
    
    // ...
}

Use HttpContext from a controller

Controllers expose the xref:Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ControllerBase.HttpContext%2A?displayProperty=nameWithType property:

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    public IActionResult About()
    {
        var pathBase = HttpContext.Request.PathBase;

        // ...

        return View();
    }
}

Use HttpContext from middleware

When working with custom middleware components, HttpContext is passed into the Invoke or InvokeAsync method:

public class MyCustomMiddleware
{
    public Task InvokeAsync(HttpContext context)
    {
        // ...
    }
}

Use HttpContext from custom components

For other framework and custom components that require access to HttpContext, the recommended approach is to register a dependency using the built-in Dependency Injection (DI) container. The DI container supplies the IHttpContextAccessor to any classes that declare it as a dependency in their constructors:

public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
     services.AddControllersWithViews();
     services.AddHttpContextAccessor();
     services.AddTransient<IUserRepository, UserRepository>();
}

In the following example:

• UserRepository declares its dependency on IHttpContextAccessor.
• The dependency is supplied when DI resolves the dependency chain and creates an instance of UserRepository.

public class UserRepository : IUserRepository
{
    private readonly IHttpContextAccessor _httpContextAccessor;

    public UserRepository(IHttpContextAccessor httpContextAccessor)
    {
        _httpContextAccessor = httpContextAccessor;
    }

    public void LogCurrentUser()
    {
        var username = _httpContextAccessor.HttpContext.User.Identity.Name;
        service.LogAccessRequest(username);
    }
}

HttpContext access from a background thread

HttpContext isn't thread-safe. Reading or writing properties of the HttpContext outside of processing a request can result in a xref:System.NullReferenceException.

[!NOTE] If your app generates sporadic NullReferenceException errors, review parts of the code that start background processing or that continue processing after a request completes. Look for mistakes, such as defining a controller method as async void.

To safely do background work with HttpContext data:

• Copy the required data during request processing.
• Pass the copied data to a background task.
• Do not reference HttpContext data in parallel tasks. Extract the data needed from the context before starting the parallel tasks.

To avoid unsafe code, never pass the HttpContext into a method that does background work. Pass the required data instead. In the following example, SendEmailCore is called to start sending an email. The correlationId is passed to SendEmailCore, not the HttpContext. Code execution doesn't wait for SendEmailCore to complete:

public class EmailController : Controller
{
    public IActionResult SendEmail(string email)
    {
        var correlationId = HttpContext.Request.Headers["x-correlation-id"].ToString();

        _ = SendEmailCore(correlationId);

        return View();
    }

    private async Task SendEmailCore(string correlationId)
    {
        // ...
    }
}

Blazor and shared state

[!INCLUDE]

:::moniker-end