Blog Archives

Why re-invent the wheel?

See below for a few quick examples from the minds over at csharp-online and codeproject.

Note:
Any snippets may have been condensed from their original sources for brevity. See references for original articles.

All examples are in C# .Net.

HTTP Post:

using System.Net;
...
string HttpPost (string uri, string parameters)
{ 
   // parameters: name1=value1&name2=value2	
   WebRequest webRequest = WebRequest.Create (uri);
   //string ProxyString = 
   //   System.Configuration.ConfigurationManager.AppSettings
   //   [GetConfigKey("proxy")];
   //webRequest.Proxy = new WebProxy (ProxyString, true);
   //Commenting out above required change to App.Config
   webRequest.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";
   webRequest.Method = "POST";
   byte[] bytes = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes (parameters);
   Stream os = null;
   try
   { // send the Post
      webRequest.ContentLength = bytes.Length;   //Count bytes to send
      os = webRequest.GetRequestStream();
      os.Write (bytes, 0, bytes.Length);         //Send it
   }
   catch (WebException ex)
   {
      MessageBox.Show ( ex.Message, "HttpPost: Request error", 
         MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error );
   }
   finally
   {
      if (os != null)
      {
         os.Close();
      }
   }
 
   try
   { // get the response
      WebResponse webResponse = webRequest.GetResponse();
      if (webResponse == null) 
         { return null; }
      StreamReader sr = new StreamReader (webResponse.GetResponseStream());
      return sr.ReadToEnd ().Trim ();
   }
   catch (WebException ex)
   {
      MessageBox.Show ( ex.Message, "HttpPost: Response error", 
         MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error );
   }
   return null;
} // end HttpPost 

Intermediate webrequest usage:

using System;
using System.Collections.Specialized;
using System.Net;
using System.Text;
using System.IO;
 
namespace BaseClassNameSpace.Web.BaseServices
{

//This base class provides implementation of request 

//and response methods during Http Calls.
      public class HttpBaseClass
      {
 
            private string UserName;
            private string UserPwd;
            private string ProxyServer;
            private int ProxyPort;
            private string Request;
            
            public HttpBaseClass(string HttpUserName, 
              string HttpUserPwd, string HttpProxyServer, 
              int HttpProxyPort, string HttpRequest)
            {
                  UserName = HttpUserName;
                  UserPwd = HttpUserPwd;
                  ProxyServer = HttpProxyServer;
                  ProxyPort = HttpProxyPort;
                  Request = HttpRequest;
            }
 
/// <summary>

// This method creates secure/non secure web
// request based on the parameters passed.
            public virtual HttpWebRequest CreateWebRequest(string uri, 
              NameValueCollection collHeader, 
              string RequestMethod, bool NwCred)
            {
                  HttpWebRequest webrequest = 
                   (HttpWebRequest) WebRequest.Create(uri);
                  webrequest.KeepAlive = false;
                  webrequest.Method = RequestMethod;
 
                  int iCount = collHeader.Count;
                  string key;
                  string keyvalue;
 
                  for (int i=0; i < iCount; i++)
                  {
                        key = collHeader.Keys[i];
                        keyvalue = collHeader[i];
                        webrequest.Headers.Add(key, keyvalue);
                  }
                  
                  webrequest.ContentType = "text/html"; 
                  //"application/x-www-form-urlencoded";

                  if (ProxyServer.Length > 0)
                  {
                     webrequest.Proxy = new 
                      WebProxy(ProxyServer,ProxyPort);
                  }
                  webrequest.AllowAutoRedirect = false;
 
                  if (NwCred)
                  {
                      CredentialCache wrCache = 
                              new CredentialCache();
                      wrCache.Add(new Uri(uri),"Basic",
                        new NetworkCredential(UserName,UserPwd));
                      webrequest.Credentials = wrCache;
                  }
                  //Remove collection elements

                  collHeader.Clear();
                  return webrequest;
            }//End of secure CreateWebRequest

            
            // This method retreives redirected URL from

            // response header and also passes back

            // any cookie (if there is any)

            public virtual string GetRedirectURL(HttpWebResponse 
                 webresponse, ref string Cookie)
            {
                  string uri="";
 
                  WebHeaderCollection headers = webresponse.Headers;
                  
                  if ((webresponse.StatusCode == HttpStatusCode.Found) || 
                    (webresponse.StatusCode == HttpStatusCode.Redirect) ||
                    (webresponse.StatusCode == HttpStatusCode.Moved) ||
                    (webresponse.StatusCode == HttpStatusCode.MovedPermanently))
                  {
                        // Get redirected uri

                        uri = headers["Location"] ;
                        uri = uri.Trim();
                  }
 
                  //Check for any cookies

                  if (headers["Set-Cookie"] != null)
                  {
                        Cookie = headers["Set-Cookie"];  
                  }
                  //                string StartURI = "http:/";

//                if (uri.Length > 0 && uri.StartsWith(StartURI)==false)

//                {

//                      uri = StartURI + uri;

//                }

                  return uri;
            }//End of GetRedirectURL method

            public virtual string GetFinalResponse(string ReUri, 
             string Cookie, string RequestMethod, bool NwCred)
            {
                  NameValueCollection collHeader = 
                        new NameValueCollection();
 
                  if (Cookie.Length > 0)
                  {
                        collHeader.Add("Cookie",Cookie);
                  }
 
                  HttpWebRequest webrequest = 
                    CreateWebRequest(ReUri,collHeader, 
                    RequestMethod, NwCred);
                        
                  BuildReqStream(ref webrequest);
 
                  HttpWebResponse webresponse;
 
                  webresponse = (HttpWebResponse)webrequest.GetResponse();
 
                  Encoding enc = System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding(1252);
                  StreamReader loResponseStream = new 
                    StreamReader(webresponse.GetResponseStream(),enc);
 
                  string Response = loResponseStream.ReadToEnd();
 
                  loResponseStream.Close();
                  webresponse.Close();
                  
                  return Response;
            }
 
            private void BuildReqStream(ref HttpWebRequest webrequest)
            {
                  byte[] bytes = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(Request);
                  webrequest.ContentLength=bytes.Length;
 
                  Stream oStreamOut = webrequest.GetRequestStream();
                  oStreamOut.Write(bytes,0,bytes.Length);
                  oStreamOut.Close();
            }
      }
}//End of HttpBaseClass class

References:
Csharp-online, “HTTP Post”, http://en.csharp-online.net/HTTP_Post
Codeproject, “How to use HttpWebRequest and HttpWebResponse in .NET”, http://www.codeproject.com/KB/IP/httpwebrequest_response.aspx