Help with ASP.NET HttpWebRequest

Question

I began to learn ASP.NET and C#, to get more familiar with techniques I want to make plugin for open source BugTracker.Net application. Where I am stacked is that for adding new issue application need to get HttpWebRequest on insert_bug.aspx

I did make basic thing working on code like this:

string Url = "http://localhost:8090/insert_bug.aspx";
        string post_data =
                     "&username=admin"
                    + "&password=admin"
                    + "&short_desc=Description"
                    + "&comment=Comment"
                    + "&projectid=1"

        byte[] bytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(post_data);
        HttpWebResponse res = null;
        try
  {
   HttpWebRequest req = (HttpWebRequest) System.Net.WebRequest.Create(Url);
   req.Credentials = CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;
   req.PreAuthenticate = 
   req.Method = "POST";
   req.ContentType= "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";
   req.ContentLength=bytes.Length;
   Stream request_stream = req.GetRequestStream();
   request_stream.Write(bytes,0,bytes.Length);
   request_stream.Close();
   res = (HttpWebResponse) req.GetResponse();
  }
  catch (Exception e)
  {
   Console.WriteLine("HttpWebRequest error url=" + Url);
   Console.WriteLine(e);
  }

I want to insert also CATEGORY into my issues and reading code on insert_bug.aspx i fund part for defining category for opening issue

if (Request["$CATEGORY$"] != null && Request["$CATEGORY$"] != "") { categoryid = Convert.ToInt32(Request["$CATEGORY$"]); }

Question: What and How I can add "$CATEGORY$" to my request so the issues I added have defined category.

Answer 1

If I understand your question correctly, if you want to add a category, you need to look up the category ID and add it as a variable in your POST data. For example, if the category you want has its ID=1 ("bug" in BugTracker.NET), then you'd use this:

    string post_data =
                 "&username=admin"
                + "&password=admin"
                + "&short_desc=Description"
                + "&comment=Comment"
                + "&projectid=1"
                + "&$CATEGORY$=1";

BTW, in simple HTTP client scenarios like this one you're better off using the WebClient class. You can accomplish the same thing in many fewer lines of code.