There are several ways to perform GET and POST requests:
Method 1: Legacy
using System.Net;
POST
var request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("http://www.example.com/recepticle.aspx"); var postData = "thing1=hello"; postData += "&thing2=world"; var data = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(postData); request.Method = "POST"; request.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"; request.ContentLength = data.Length; using (var stream = request.GetRequestStream()) { stream.Write(data, 0, data.Length); } var response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse(); var responseString = new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream()).ReadToEnd();
GET
var request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("http://www.example.com/recepticle.aspx"); var response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse(); var responseString = new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream()).ReadToEnd();
Method 2: WebClient (Also now legacy)
using System.Net; using System.Collections.Specialized;
POST
using (var client = new WebClient()) { var values = new NameValueCollection(); values["thing1"] = "hello"; values["thing2"] = "world"; var response = client.UploadValues("http://www.example.com/recepticle.aspx", values); var responseString = Encoding.Default.GetString(response); }
GET
using (var client = new WebClient()) { var responseString = client.DownloadString("http://www.example.com/recepticle.aspx"); }
Method 3: HttpClient
Currently the preferred approach. Asynchronous. Ships with .NET 4.5; portable version for other platforms available via NuGet.
using System.Net.Http;
POST
using (var client = new HttpClient()) { var values = new Dictionary<string, string> { { "thing1", "hello" }, { "thing2", "world" } }; var content = new FormUrlEncodedContent(values); var response = await client.PostAsync("http://www.example.com/recepticle.aspx", content); var responseString = await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync(); }
GET
using (var client = new HttpClient()) { var responseString = client.GetStringAsync("http://www.example.com/recepticle.aspx"); }
Method 4: 3rd-Party Libraries
RestSharp
Tried and tested library for interacting with REST APIs. Portable. Available via NuGet.
Flurl.Http
Newer library sporting a fluent API and testing helpers. HttpClient under the hood. Portable. Available via NuGet.
using Flurl.Http;
POST
var responseString = await "http://www.example.com/recepticle.aspx" .PostUrlEncodedAsync(new { thing1 = "hello", thing2 = "world" }) .ReceiveString();
GET
var responseString = await "http://www.example.com/recepticle.aspx" .GetStringAsync();