How to retrieve a webpage with C#?

Question

How to retrieve a webpage and diplay the html to the console with C# ?

score 50 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 28 '09 at 14:34

50

Use the System.Net.WebClient class.

System.Console.WriteLine(new System.Net.WebClient().DownloadString(url));

answered Feb 28 '09 at 14:34

mmx

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2

It would be synchronous, though. Meaning it will only display data after the entire page has been loaded. – configurator Feb 28 '09 at 15:34

score 19 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 19 '09 at 20:12

19

I have knocked up an example:

WebRequest r = WebRequest.Create("http://www.msn.com");
WebResponse resp = r.GetResponse();
using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(resp.GetResponseStream()))
{
    Console.WriteLine(sr.ReadToEnd());
}

Console.ReadKey();

Here is another option, using the WebClient this time and do it asynchronously:

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    System.Net.WebClient c = new WebClient();
    c.DownloadDataCompleted += 
         new DownloadDataCompletedEventHandler(c_DownloadDataCompleted);
    c.DownloadDataAsync(new Uri("http://www.msn.com"));

    Console.ReadKey();
}

static void c_DownloadDataCompleted(object sender, 
                                    DownloadDataCompletedEventArgs e)
{
    Console.WriteLine(Encoding.ASCII.GetString(e.Result));
}

The second option is handy as it will not block the UI Thread, giving a better experience.

edited Apr 19 '09 at 20:12

mmx

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answered Feb 28 '09 at 14:38

REA_ANDREW

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1

I did not specify that my example was for the sole purposes of using with a console application. – REA_ANDREW Feb 28 '09 at 15:08
I agree but I think the exact example you mentioned demonstrate something specifically *wrong* (in console version only): pressing a key before the URL is fetched causes the console to be closed before anything is written to it. Changing the name of `Main` method better demonstrates your intention. – mmx Feb 28 '09 at 15:23
It was just to convey the example of the Async mehtod option. Fair do's I could have extracted the method into its own I suppose. Either way, I just did it quick to get my example out there. I had no intention that "pressing a key" helped get the html of the request. Apologies for the confusion. – REA_ANDREW Feb 28 '09 at 15:37
That's Fine :) Sorry if this bothered you. I didn't mean it. – mmx Feb 28 '09 at 15:48

score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 01 '09 at 07:37

5

// Save HTML code to a local file.
WebClient client = new WebClient ();
client.DownloadFile("http://yoursite.com/page.html", @"C:\htmlFile.html");

// Without saving it.
string htmlCode = client.DownloadString("http://yoursite.com/page.html");

answered Mar 01 '09 at 07:37

Ahmed Atia

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How to retrieve a webpage with C#?

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