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https://github.com/reactiveui/fusillade

An opinionated HTTP library for Mobile Development
https://github.com/reactiveui/fusillade

cross-platform dotnet dotnet-core http http-client mobile speculative-requests volley xamarin

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An opinionated HTTP library for Mobile Development

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## Fusillade: An opinionated HTTP library for Mobile Development



Fusillade helps you to write more efficient code in mobile and desktop

applications written in C#. Its design goals and feature set are inspired by

[Volley](http://arnab.ch/blog/2013/08/asynchronous-http-requests-in-android-using-volley/)

as well as [Picasso](http://square.github.io/picasso/).



### What even does this do for me?



Fusillade is a set of HttpMessageHandlers (i.e. "drivers" for HttpClient) that

make your mobile applications more efficient and responsive:



* **Auto-deduplication of relevant requests** - if every instance of your TweetView

  class requests the same avatar image, Fusillade will only do *one* request

  and give the result to every instance. All `GET`, `HEAD`, and `OPTIONS` requests are deduplicated.



* **Request Limiting** - Requests are always dispatched 4 at a time (the

  Volley default) - issue lots of requests without overwhelming the network

  connection.



* **Request Prioritization** - background requests should run at a lower

  priority than requests initiated by the user, but actually *implementing*

  this is quite difficult. With a few changes to your app, you can hint to

  Fusillade which requests should skip to the front of the queue.



* **Speculative requests** - On page load, many apps will try to speculatively

  cache data (i.e. try to pre-download data that the user *might* click on).

  Marking requests as speculative will allow requests until a certain data

  limit is reached, then cancel future requests (i.e. "Keep downloading data

  in the background until we've got 5MB of cached data")



### How do I use it?



The easiest way to interact with Fusillade is via a class called `NetCache`,

which has a number of built-in scenarios:



```cs

public static class NetCache

{

    // Use to fetch data into a cache when a page loads. Expect that

    // these requests will only get so far then give up and start failing

    public static HttpMessageHandler Speculative { get; set; }



    // Use for network requests that are running in the background

    public static HttpMessageHandler Background { get; set; }



    // Use for network requests that are fetching data that the user is

    // waiting on *right now*

    public static HttpMessageHandler UserInitiated { get; set; }

}

```



To use them, just create an `HttpClient` with the given handler:



```cs

var client = new HttpClient(NetCache.UserInitiated);

var response = await client.GetAsync("http://httpbin.org/get");

var str = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();



Console.WriteLine(str);

```



### Where does it work?



Everywhere! Fusillade is a Portable Library, it works on:



* Xamarin.Android

* Xamarin.iOS

* Xamarin.Mac

* Windows Desktop apps

* WinRT / Windows Phone 8.1 apps

* Windows Phone 8



### More on speculative requests



Generally, on a mobile app, you'll want to *reset* the Speculative limit every

time the app resumes from standby. How you do this depends on the platform,

but in that callback, you need to call:



```cs

NetCache.Speculative.ResetLimit(1048576 * 5/*MB*/);

```



### Offline Support



Fusillade can optionally cache responses that it sees, then play them back to

you when your app is offline (or you just want to speed up your app by fetching

cached data). Here's how to set it up:



* Implement the IRequestCache interface:



```cs

public interface IRequestCache

{

    /// 

    /// Implement this method by saving the Body of the response. The

    /// response is already downloaded as a ByteArrayContent so you don't

    /// have to worry about consuming the stream.

    /// The originating request.

    /// The response whose body you should save.

    /// A unique key used to identify the request details.

    /// Cancellation token.

    /// Completion.

    Task Save(HttpRequestMessage request, HttpResponseMessage response, string key, CancellationToken ct);



    /// 

    /// Implement this by loading the Body of the given request / key.

    /// 

    /// The originating request.

    /// A unique key used to identify the request details,

    /// that was given in Save().

    /// Cancellation token.

    /// The Body of the given request, or null if the search

    /// completed successfully but the response was not found.

    Task Fetch(HttpRequestMessage request, string key, CancellationToken ct);

}

```



* Set an instance to `NetCache.RequestCache`, and make some requests:



```cs

NetCache.RequestCache = new MyCoolCache();



var client = new HttpClient(NetCache.UserInitiated);

await client.GetStringAsync("https://httpbin.org/get");

```



* Now you can use `NetCache.Offline` to get data even when the Internet is disconnected:



```cs

// This will never actually make an HTTP request, it will either succeed via

// reading from MyCoolCache, or return an HttpResponseMessage with a 503 Status code.

var client = new HttpClient(NetCache.Offline);

await client.GetStringAsync("https://httpbin.org/get");

```



### How do I use this with ModernHttpClient?



Add this line to a **static constructor** of your app's startup class:



```cs

using Splat;



Locator.CurrentMutable.RegisterConstant(new NativeMessageHandler(), typeof(HttpMessageHandler));

```



### What do the priorities mean?



The precedence is UserInitiated > Background > Speculative

Which means that anything set as UserInitiate has a higher priority than Background or Speculative. 



Explicit is a special that allows to set an explicit value that can be higher, lower or in between any of the predefined cases. 



```csharp

var lowerThanSpeculative = new RateLimitedHttpMessageHandler(

                new HttpClientHandler(), 

                Priority.Explicit, 

                9);



var moreThanSpeculativeButLessThanBAckground = new RateLimitedHttpMessageHandler(

                new HttpClientHandler(), 

                Priority.Explicit, 

                15);



var doItBeforeEverythingElse = new RateLimitedHttpMessageHandler(

                new HttpClientHandler(), 

                Priority.Explicit, 

                1000);

```



### Statics? That sucks! I like $OTHER_THING! Your priorities suck, I want to come up with my own scheme!



`NetCache` is just a nice pre-canned default, the interesting code is in a

class called `RateLimitedHttpMessageHandler`. You can create it explicitly and

configure it as-needed.



### What's with the name?



The word 'Fusillade' is a synonym for Volley :)



## Contribute



Fusillade is developed under an OSI-approved open source license, making it freely usable and distributable, even for commercial use. Because of our Open Collective model for funding and transparency, we are able to funnel support and funds through to our contributors and community. We ❤ the people who are involved in this project, and we’d love to have you on board, especially if you are just getting started or have never contributed to open-source before.



So here's to you, lovely person who wants to join us — this is how you can support us:



* [Responding to questions on StackOverflow](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/fusillade)

* [Passing on knowledge and teaching the next generation of developers](http://ericsink.com/entries/dont_use_rxui.html)

* [Donations](https://reactiveui.net/donate) and [Corporate Sponsorships](https://reactiveui.net/sponsorship)

* [Asking your employer to reciprocate and contribute to open-source](https://github.com/github/balanced-employee-ip-agreement)

* Submitting documentation updates where you see fit or lacking.

* Making contributions to the code base.