Create HTTP post request and receive response using C# console application

Question

I need to post data to a URL (https://somesite.com) to download file in responseStrem based on the parameters I posted. How can I do that using a C# console application?

Parameters: filename, userid, password, type

Answer 1

Take a look at the System.Net.WebClient class, it can be used to issue requests and handle their responses, as well as to download files:

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/HTTPPOSTsAndHTTPGETsWithWebClientAndCAndFakingAPostBack.aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.net.webclient(VS.90).aspx

Answer 2

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Net;
using System.IO;

namespace WebserverInteractionClassLibrary
{
    public class RequestManager
    {
        public string LastResponse { protected set; get; }

        CookieContainer cookies = new CookieContainer();

        internal string GetCookieValue(Uri SiteUri,string name)
        {
            Cookie cookie = cookies.GetCookies(SiteUri)[name];
            return (cookie == null) ? null : cookie.Value;
        }

        public string GetResponseContent(HttpWebResponse response)
        {
            if (response == null)
            {
                throw new ArgumentNullException("response");
            }
            Stream dataStream = null;
            StreamReader reader = null;
            string responseFromServer = null;

            try
            {
                // Get the stream containing content returned by the server.
                dataStream = response.GetResponseStream();
                // Open the stream using a StreamReader for easy access.
                reader = new StreamReader(dataStream);
                // Read the content.
                responseFromServer = reader.ReadToEnd();
                // Cleanup the streams and the response.
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
            }
            finally
            {                
                if (reader != null)
                {
                    reader.Close();
                }
                if (dataStream != null)
                {
                    dataStream.Close();
                }
                response.Close();
            }
            LastResponse = responseFromServer;
            return responseFromServer;
        }

        public HttpWebResponse SendPOSTRequest(string uri, string content, string login, string password, bool allowAutoRedirect)
        {
            HttpWebRequest request = GeneratePOSTRequest(uri, content, login, password, allowAutoRedirect);
            return GetResponse(request);
        }

        public HttpWebResponse SendGETRequest(string uri, string login, string password, bool allowAutoRedirect)
        {
            HttpWebRequest request = GenerateGETRequest(uri, login, password, allowAutoRedirect);
            return GetResponse(request);
        }

        public HttpWebResponse SendRequest(string uri, string content, string method, string login, string password, bool allowAutoRedirect)
        {
            HttpWebRequest request = GenerateRequest(uri, content, method, login, password, allowAutoRedirect);
            return GetResponse(request);
        }

        public HttpWebRequest GenerateGETRequest(string uri, string login, string password, bool allowAutoRedirect)
        {
            return GenerateRequest(uri, null, "GET", null, null, allowAutoRedirect);
        }

        public HttpWebRequest GeneratePOSTRequest(string uri, string content, string login, string password, bool allowAutoRedirect)
        {
            return GenerateRequest(uri, content, "POST", null, null, allowAutoRedirect);
        }

        internal HttpWebRequest GenerateRequest(string uri, string content, string method, string login, string password, bool allowAutoRedirect)
        {
            if (uri == null)
            {
                throw new ArgumentNullException("uri");
            }
            // Create a request using a URL that can receive a post. 
            HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)HttpWebRequest.Create(uri);
            // Set the Method property of the request to POST.
            request.Method = method;
            // Set cookie container to maintain cookies
            request.CookieContainer = cookies;
            request.AllowAutoRedirect = false;
            // If login is empty use defaul credentials
            if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(login))
            {
                request.Credentials = CredentialCache.DefaultNetworkCredentials;
            }
            else
            {
                request.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(login, password);
            }
            if (method == "POST")
            {
                // Convert POST data to a byte array.
                byte[] byteArray = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(content);
                // Set the ContentType property of the WebRequest.
                request.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";
                // Set the ContentLength property of the WebRequest.
                request.ContentLength = byteArray.Length;
                // Get the request stream.
                Stream dataStream = request.GetRequestStream();
                // Write the data to the request stream.
                dataStream.Write(byteArray, 0, byteArray.Length);
                // Close the Stream object.
                dataStream.Close();
            }
            return request;
        }

        internal HttpWebResponse GetResponse(HttpWebRequest request)
        {
            if (request == null)
            {
                throw new ArgumentNullException("request");
            }
            HttpWebResponse response = null;
            try
            {
                response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse();                
                cookies.Add(response.Cookies);                
                // Print the properties of each cookie.
                Console.WriteLine("\nCookies: ");
                foreach (Cookie cook in cookies.GetCookies(request.RequestUri))
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("Domain: {0}, String: {1}", cook.Domain, cook.ToString());
                }
            }
            catch (WebException ex)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Web exception occurred. Status code: {0}", ex.Status);
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
            }
            return response;
        }

    }
}

Answer 3

Hi,

For this you can simply use the "HttpWebRequest" and "HttpWebResponse" classes in .net.

Below is a sample console app I wrote to demonstrate how easy this is.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Net;
using System.IO;

namespace Test
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            string url = "www.somewhere.com";       
            string fileName = @"C:\output.file";

            HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(url);
            request.Timeout = 5000;

            try
            {
                using (WebResponse response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse())
                {
                    using (FileStream stream = new FileStream(fileName, FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write))
                    {
                        byte[] bytes = ReadFully(response.GetResponseStream());

                        stream.Write(bytes, 0, bytes.Length);
                    }
                }
            }
            catch (WebException)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Error Occured");
            }
        }

        public static byte[] ReadFully(Stream input)
        {
            byte[] buffer = new byte[16 * 1024];
            using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
            {
                int read;
                while ((read = input.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) > 0)
                {
                    ms.Write(buffer, 0, read);
                }
                return ms.ToArray();
            }
        }
    }
}

Enjoy!