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API Contracts

ApiResponse<T>

Class public
A generic envelope for API responses, providing a consistent wire format that wraps the data payload alongside success/failure status and metadata.
Namespace SampleApi
Assembly SampleApi
Package v1.0.0.0

Definition

Section titled Definition 
public class ApiResponse<T>
T

Type Parameters

Section titled Type Parameters
T
The type of the data payload contained in the response.

Remarks

Section titled Remarks
All API endpoints should return ApiResponse`1 to give clients a uniform structure for deserialization. The Success flag allows clients to branch on success or failure without inspecting HTTP status codes, while Timestamp provides server-side timing for debugging and cache-invalidation purposes. For error responses, Data will be null and Message will contain a human-readable error description. For richer error bodies, consider returning ProblemDetails as the T payload.

Properties4

Section titled Properties
Data Section titled Data nullable
T? 
T? ApiResponse<T>.Data

Gets or sets the response data payload.

Remarks
Contains the requested resource on success, or null on failure.
Message Section titled Message nullable
string? 
string? ApiResponse<T>.Message

Gets or sets an optional human-readable message providing additional context about the response, such as a confirmation or an error description.

Success Section titled Success
bool 
bool ApiResponse<T>.Success

Gets or sets a value indicating whether the request completed successfully.

Remarks
When false, Message contains the error description and Data is null.
Timestamp Section titled Timestamp
DateTimeOffset 
DateTimeOffset ApiResponse<T>.Timestamp

Gets or sets the UTC timestamp indicating when the server generated this response. Useful for debugging latency and cache invalidation.

Methods2

Section titled Methods
Fail Section titled Fail static
ApiResponse<T> 
ApiResponse<T> ApiResponse<T>.Fail(
    string message)

Creates an error response with the specified message.

Parameters
message string
The error message.
Returns
ApiResponse<T> A new ApiResponse`1 marked as unsuccessful.
Ok Section titled Ok static
ApiResponse<T> 
ApiResponse<T> ApiResponse<T>.Ok(
    T data,
    string? message = null)

Creates a successful response containing the specified data.

Parameters
data T
The data payload.
message string? optional
An optional message.
Returns
ApiResponse<T> A new ApiResponse`1 marked as successful.

Examples

Section titled Examples

Returning a successful product response:

var product = new ProductDto { Id = Guid.NewGuid(), Name = "Widget" };
var response = ApiResponse<ProductDto>.Ok(product, "Product retrieved");
// { "data": { ... }, "message": "Product retrieved", "success": true, ... }

Returning an error response:

var response = ApiResponse<ProductDto>.Fail("Product not found");
// { "data": null, "message": "Product not found", "success": false, ... }

See Also

Section titled See Also
ProductDto ProblemDetails