Using the POST method with HttpWebRequest

[Tony]

Hi all,

I can use the HttpWebRequest object to scrape a page with
a GET. However, if I need to post some data do a page,
how do I do that? I can set the method property
to "POST", but then how do I tell it what data to send
(ie "zip=12345&month=5")?

Thanks

 

[Martin Honnen]

I can use the HttpWebRequest object to scrape a page with
a GET. However, if I need to post some data do a page,
how do I do that? I can set the method property
to "POST", but then how do I tell it what data to send
(ie "zip=12345&month=5")?

Use GetRequestStream() and write the data to the stream and close the
stream after you have set the method to POST.

 

[Eric Veltman]

I can use the HttpWebRequest object to scrape a page with
a GET. However, if I need to post some data do a page,
how do I do that? I can set the method property
to "POST", but then how do I tell it what data to send
(ie "zip=12345&month=5")?

Hello Tony,

I've never done this myself, but I think you need
to use the GetRequestStream() method and then use
the returned stream to send the data to the server.

Best regards,

Eric

 

[vMike]

Here is a real simple cookieless example this is a snip where stringPost is
the string of data you want to post and stringResponse is a string which
will hold the response.

Dim mgWebRequest As HttpWebRequest
Dim mgWebResponse As HttpWebResponse
Dim mgStreamWriter As StreamWriter
Dim mgStreamReader As StreamReader
mgWebRequest =CType(WebRequest.Create(http://post.site.com) ,
HttpWebRequest)
mgWebRequest.Method = "POST"
mgWebRequest.ContentLength = stringPost.Length
mgWebRequest.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
mgStreamWriter = Nothing
mgStreamWriter = New StreamWriter(mgWebRequest.GetRequestStream())
mgStreamWriter.Write(stringPost)
mgStreamWriter.Close()
mgWebResponse = CType(mgWebRequest.GetResponse(),HttpWebResponse)
mgStreamReader = New StreamReader(mgWebResponse.GetResponseStream())
stringResult = mgStreamReader.ReadToEnd()
mgStreamReader.Close()


It gets much more complicated if you need to pass or receive cookies or
files.

 

[Tony]

That helps a lot, thanks everyone!

 

[innosia]

hi how do i know what is the content of stringPost?

if i have a form like this
<form Method="Post" action="a.php">
<input type="Text" name="UserName"/>
<input type="Text" name="Password"/>
</form>

What will be the stringPost content? I have tried
stringPost = "UserName=Jack&Password=12345";

but it fails though the login information is correct
can anyone help me?