HeaderParameters

Namespace: RA.Utilities.Core.Constants

The HeaderParameters class is a static class that acts as a central repository for common HTTP header names used throughout your services. It is part of the RA.Utilities.Core.Constants package.

Its purpose is to eliminate "magic strings" from your code. Instead of hard-coding header names like "x-request-id" or "Authorization" directly in your middleware, API endpoints, or HTTP clients, you use a named constant like HeaderParameters.XRequestId.

This simple practice provides several key benefits:

Readability: The code becomes more self-documenting and easier to understand. Request.Headers[HeaderParameters.XRequestId] is much clearer than Request.Headers["x-request-id"].
Consistency: It guarantees that every part of your application ecosystem uses the exact same string for a given header, preventing subtle inconsistencies.
Maintainability: If you ever need to change a header name (e.g., for compliance with a new standard), you only need to update it in this one central file.
Reduced Errors: It prevents typos in string literals, which can lead to bugs that are often difficult to track down.

This class is used by other parts of the RA.Utilities library, such as the HeadersParameterTransformer in the RA.Utilities.OpenApi package to document headers, and by middleware to read correlation IDs from incoming requests.

Constant Values

Constant Name	Value	Description
XRequestId	`"x-request-id"`	Used for request correlation and tracing.
TraceId	`"trace-id"`	Used for internal tracing, often associated with a distributed trace.
Location	`"location"`	Used in `201 Created` responses to point to the new resource's URL.
Authorization	`"Authorization"`	Used for sending authentication credentials (e.g., a Bearer token).

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc;
using RA.Utilities.Core.Constants;

[ApiController]
[Route("api/[controller]")]
public class ExampleController : ControllerBase
{
    [HttpGet("{id}")]
    public IActionResult GetProduct(int id)
    {
        return Ok(product);
    }

    [HttpGet("whoami")]
    public IActionResult GetUserFromHeader()
    {
        // Use a constant to safely access a header value
        if (Request.Headers.TryGetValue(HeaderParameters.Authorization, out var authHeader))
        {
            // Logic to parse the token...
            return Ok($"Authorization header found: {authHeader}");
        }

        return Unauthorized(BaseResponseMessages.Unauthorized);
    }
}

Constant Values​

Constant Values