Downloading Data from a Server -CodeIdol

Downloading Data from a Server

Problem

You need to download data from a location specified by a URL; this data can be either an array of bytes or a file.

Solution

Use the WebClient.DownloadData method to download data from a URL:

	string uri = "http://localhost/mysite/index.aspx";

	// Make a client
	using (WebClient client = new WebClient())
	{

	    // Get the contents of the file
	    Console.WriteLine("Downloading {0} " + uri);
	    // Download the page and store the bytes
	    byte[] bytes;
	    try
	    {


	        bytes = client.DownloadData(uri);

	    }
	    catch (WebException we)
	    {
	        Console.WriteLine(we.ToString());
	        return;
	    }
	    // Write the content out
	    string page = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(bytes);
	    Console.WriteLine(page);
	}

This will produce the following output:

	Downloading {0} http://localhost/mysite/index.aspx

	<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" >
	<HTML>
	    <HEAD> 
	        <title>WebForm1</title> 
	        <meta name="GENERATOR" Content="Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 7.1"> 
	        <meta name="CODE_LANGUAGE" Content="C#"> 
	        <meta name="vs_defaultClientScript" content="JavaScript"> 
	        <meta name="vs_targetSchema"
	content="http://schemas.microsoft.com/intellisense/ie5">
	    </HEAD>
	    <body MS_POSITIONING="GridLayout">
	        <form name="Form1" method="post" action="index.aspx" id="Form1">
	<input type="hidden" name="__VIEWSTATE"
	value="dDwyMDQwNjUzNDY2Ozs+kS9hguYm9369sybDqmIow0AvxBg=" />
	               <span id="Label1" style="Z-INDEX: 101; LEFT: 142px; POSITION: absolute; 
	TOP: 164px">This is index.aspx!</span> 
	        </form> 
	    </body> 
	</HTML>

You can also download data to a file using DownloadFile:

	// Make a client
	using (WebClient client = new WebClient())
	{
	    // Go get the file
	    Console.WriteLine("Retrieving file from {0}…\r\n", uri);
	    // Get file and put it in a temp file
	    string tempFile = Path.GetTempFileName( );
	    client.DownloadFile(uri,tempFile);
	    Console.WriteLine("Downloaded {0} to {1}",uri,tempFile);
	}

This will produce the following output:

	Retrieving file from http://localhost/mysite/index.aspx…

	Downloaded http://localhost/mysite/index.aspx to C:\Documents and Settings\[user]\ 
	Local Settings\Temp\tmp17C.tmp

Discussion

WebClient simplifies downloading of files and bytes in files, as these are common tasks when dealing with the Web. The more traditional stream-based method for downloading can also be accessed via the OpenRead method on the WebClient.

Jan. 19, 2011, 10:42 a.m.
posted by bert

Downloading Data from a Server