C# : webclient downloads the source code of a html page instead of the actual resource

Question

I adopted this code from one of the MSDN blogs and added webclient to download a resource ..

string formUrl = "My login url";
            string formParams = string.Format("userName={0}&password={1}&x={2}&y={3}&login={4}", "user", "password","0","0","login");
            string cookieHeader;
            WebRequest req = WebRequest.Create(formUrl);
            req.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";
            req.Method = "POST";
            byte[] bytes = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(formParams);
            req.ContentLength = bytes.Length;
            using (Stream os = req.GetRequestStream())
            {
                os.Write(bytes, 0, bytes.Length);
            }
            WebResponse resp = req.GetResponse();
            cookieHeader = resp.Headers["Set-cookie"];
            string pageSource;
            string getUrl = "Resource url";
            WebRequest getRequest = WebRequest.Create(getUrl);
            getRequest.Headers.Add("Cookie", cookieHeader);
            WebResponse getResponse = getRequest.GetResponse();
            using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(getResponse.GetResponseStream()))
            {
                pageSource = sr.ReadToEnd();
                System.Console.WriteLine(sr.ToString());
            }

            WebClient wc = new WebClient();
            wc.Headers["Content-Type"] = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";

            wc.DownloadFile("Resource url","C:\\abc.tgz");
            Console.Read();

But abc.tgz is not what it's supposed to be . So when I opened it up using notepad , I noticed that it is the source file of the "My login URL" page .. Where am I going wrong?

Is there any property of webclient that I can use to see the error .. ie .. base address etc?

Answer 1

Let's make things simpler, shall we:

public class CookiesAwareWebClient : WebClient
{
    public CookieContainer CookieContainer { get; private set; }

    public CookiesAwareWebClient()
    {
        CookieContainer = new CookieContainer();
    }

    protected override WebRequest GetWebRequest(Uri address)
    {
        var request = base.GetWebRequest(address);
        ((HttpWebRequest)request).CookieContainer = CookieContainer;
        return request;
    }
}

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        using (var client = new CookiesAwareWebClient())
        {
            var values = new NameValueCollection
            {
                { "userName", "user" },
                { "password", "password" },
                { "x", "0" }, // <- I doubt the server cares about the x position of where the user clicked on the image submit button :-)
                { "y", "0" }, // <- I doubt the server cares about the y position of where the user clicked on the image submit button :-)
                { "login", "login" },
            };

            // We authenticate first
            client.UploadValues("http://example.com/login", values);

            // Now we can download
            client.DownloadFile("http://example.com/abc.tgz", @"c:\abc.tgz");
        }
    }
}

And by the way the problem with your code is that you are not passing the authentication cookie issued by the server when you sent the first request to the second request which is supposed to access a protected resource. All you pass is some content type and no cookie and all. Servers like cookies :-)