dotnet httpclient - Use HttpClientFactory from .NET 4.6.2

Question

I have a .NET 4.6.2 console application (using Simple Injector). I need to make calls to an HTTP service. Having run into issues using HttpClient directly, I'm trying to use HttpClientFactory ( https://github.com/aspnet/HttpClientFactory ) instead.

The project/library is .NET Standard 2.0 so it should?? work in .NET 4.6.2, but it uses stuff like IServiceCollection, which is in Core only.

So my question is can I use HttpClientFactory in a non-Core application.

Answer 1

All of the Microsoft.Extensions.* packages target .NET Standard 2.0. That means that you can use Dependency Injection, Configuration, Logging and HttpClientFactory if you add the appropriate package to your application.

You need to add Microsoft.Extensions.Http to use HttpClientFactory and Microsoft.Extensions.Http.Polly if you want to use it with Polly

To configure HttpClientFactory you'll have to add Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection to your "main" project. Microsoft.Extensions.Http package only depends on Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.Abstractions which contains the interfaces, not the DI provider itself.