Stackoverflow API response format

Question

The Stackoverflow API is returning an unexpected response when C# to create a HTTP GET request.

If I paste http://api.stackoverflow.com/1.1/users/882993 into the browsers address bar I get the correct JSON response:

{
  "total": 1,
  "page": 1,
  "pagesize": 30,
  "users": [
    {
      "user_id": 882993,
      "user_type": "registered",
      "creation_date": 1312739131,
      "display_name": "Jack",
      "reputation": 1926,
      "email_hash": "69243d90e50d9e0b3e025517fd23d1da",
      "age": 23,
      "last_access_date": 1358087009,
      "website_url": "http://jtbrown.me.uk",
      "location": "Birmingham, United Kingdom",
      "about_me": "<p>Student.</p>\n",
      "question_count": 68,
      "answer_count": 79,
      "view_count": 115,
      "up_vote_count": 98,
      "down_vote_count": 3,
      "accept_rate": 94,
      "association_id": "d64187a3-bf66-4a4d-8e87-6ef18f0397e3",
      "user_questions_url": "/users/882993/questions",
      "user_answers_url": "/users/882993/answers",
      "user_favorites_url": "/users/882993/favorites",
      "user_tags_url": "/users/882993/tags",
      "user_badges_url": "/users/882993/badges",
      "user_timeline_url": "/users/882993/timeline",
      "user_mentioned_url": "/users/882993/mentioned",
      "user_comments_url": "/users/882993/comments",
      "user_reputation_url": "/users/882993/reputation",
      "badge_counts": {
        "gold": 0,
        "silver": 7,
        "bronze": 34
      }
    }
  ]
}

If I attempt to perform the same action in code:

    HttpWebRequest Request = WebRequest.Create("http://api.stackoverflow.com/1.1/users/882993") as HttpWebRequest;  

    using (HttpWebResponse Response = Request.GetResponse() as HttpWebResponse)  
    {  
        // Get the response stream  
        StreamReader Reader = new StreamReader(Response.GetResponseStream());

        // Console application output  
        StackWidget.Text = Reader.ReadToEnd();
    } 

I get the response:

�\b\0\0\0\0\0\0u�Ms�0���`8��Ӏ2�rl����#���J4��^\t#�p�g���j�����|�n�G/ڎ�7p����$�5\r���f�y�v�����\"F(���֛0���J�?{��������$���e�!T�-~+��@_p���j\fb�(�f�my��dt�ӄ�!AV\t����G'$\"؉i{;��X��5H9�z(�\"GQ<�]��TA9\b�Z��T��U%���;�n�-����*:ʚ��w�c��޹yU|P�m�S��M\r��?��O���@�m������\n'\b�}/�ь�.7E\a�*���uaDN@�k��N�L�zU\n�3�:DJ^S{����$K�\"�ɮ:f�.�)�P�\f�Qq\f�C�/�k*UN=�A\r�,7���.���p�9�3�jVT7��)ܬH\fYzW�4kGX�_|�AK��q�KU�GGw��^�j����D���7�\\��Ƴr,�N�yzno�F\ro�̄[�&i{afڵ��ٗ,���c\\~=l>6�\0U�F\0\0

Answer 1

The HTTP response you received is GZIP compressed, so you have to decompress the response stream. This can be automatically done by setting the HttpWebRequest.AutomaticDecompression property.

var request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("http://api.stackoverflow.com/1.1/users/882993");
request.AutomaticDecompression = DecompressionMethods.GZip | DecompressionMethods.Deflate; 
using (var response = request.GetResponse())
using (var stream = response.GetResponseStream())
using (var reader = new StreamReader(stream))
{
    var json = reader.ReadToEnd();
}