The static method below makes an http request for a web page, and the resulting string of html within the http response is captured and returned to the caller.
[C#]
//System.Net
//System.IO
static string GetHtmlPage(string strURL)
{
String strResult;
WebResponse objResponse;
WebRequest objRequest = HttpWebRequest.Create(strURL);
objResponse = objRequest.GetResponse();
using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(objResponse.GetResponseStream()))
{
strResult = sr.ReadToEnd();
sr.Close();
}
return strResult;
}
[VB]
'System.Net
'System.IO
Shared Function GetHtmlPage(ByVal strURL As String) As String
Dim strResult As String
Dim objResponse As WebResponse
Dim objRequest As WebRequest = HttpWebRequest.Create(strURL)
objResponse = objRequest.GetResponse()
Using sr As New StreamReader(objResponse.GetResponseStream())
strResult = sr.ReadToEnd()
sr.Close()
End Using
Return strResult
End Function
And to call the method:
[C#] string TheUrl = "http://www.mikesdotnetting.com/Default.aspx"; string response = GetHtmlPage(TheUrl);
[VB] Dim TheUrl As String = "http://www.mikesdotnetting.com/Default.aspx" Dim response As String = GetHtmlPage(TheUrl)
The HttpWebRequest object can be configured to supply header information. Most of the default values are null. For example, the User-Agent value is null, but can be set to anything you want. Cookies can also be "enabled" for the object through the CookiesContainer property, if required to maintain sessions.
