[c#] How to get status code from webclient?

I am using the WebClient class to post some data to a web form. I would like to get the response status code of the form submission. So far I've found out how to get the status code if there is a exception

Catch wex As WebException
        If TypeOf wex.Response Is HttpWebResponse Then
          msgbox(DirectCast(wex.Response, HttpWebResponse).StatusCode)
            End If

However if the form is submitted successfully and no exception is thrown then I won't know the status code(200,301,302,...)

Is there some way to get the status code when there is no exceptions thrown?

PS: I prefer not to use httpwebrequest/httpwebresponse

Just in case someone else needs an F# version of the above described hack.

open System
open System.IO
open System.Net

type WebClientEx() =
     inherit WebClient ()
     [<DefaultValue>] val mutable m_Resp : WebResponse

     override x.GetWebResponse (req: WebRequest ) =
        x.m_Resp <- base.GetWebResponse(req)
        (req :?> HttpWebRequest).AllowAutoRedirect <- false;
        x.m_Resp

     override x.GetWebResponse (req: WebRequest , ar: IAsyncResult  ) =
        x.m_Resp <- base.GetWebResponse(req, ar)
        (req :?> HttpWebRequest).AllowAutoRedirect <- false;
        x.m_Resp

     member x.StatusCode with get() : HttpStatusCode = 
            if not (obj.ReferenceEquals (x.m_Resp, null)) && x.m_Resp.GetType() = typeof<HttpWebResponse> then
                (x.m_Resp :?> HttpWebResponse).StatusCode
            else
                HttpStatusCode.OK

let wc = new WebClientEx()
let st = wc.OpenRead("http://www.stackoverflow.com")
let sr = new StreamReader(st)
let res = sr.ReadToEnd()
wc.StatusCode
sr.Close()
st.Close()

You should be able to use the "client.ResponseHeaders[..]" call, see this link for examples of getting stuff back from the response

There is a way to do it using reflection. It works with .NET 4.0. It accesses a private field and may not work in other versions of .NET without modifications.

I have no idea why Microsoft did not expose this field with a property.

private static int GetStatusCode(WebClient client, out string statusDescription)
{
    FieldInfo responseField = client.GetType().GetField("m_WebResponse", BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.NonPublic);

    if (responseField != null)
    {
        HttpWebResponse response = responseField.GetValue(client) as HttpWebResponse;

        if (response != null)
        {
            statusDescription = response.StatusDescription;
            return (int)response.StatusCode;
        }
    }

    statusDescription = null;
    return 0;
}

You can check if the error is of type WebException and then inspect the response code;

if (e.Error.GetType().Name == "WebException")
{
   WebException we = (WebException)e.Error;
   HttpWebResponse response = (System.Net.HttpWebResponse)we.Response;
   if (response.StatusCode==HttpStatusCode.NotFound)
      System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("Not found!");
}

or

try
{
    // send request
}
catch (WebException e)
{
    // check e.Status as above etc..
}

You can try this code to get HTTP status code from WebException or from OpenReadCompletedEventArgs.Error. It works in Silverlight too because SL does not have WebExceptionStatus.ProtocolError defined.

HttpStatusCode GetHttpStatusCode(System.Exception err)
{
    if (err is WebException)
    {
        WebException we = (WebException)err;
        if (we.Response is HttpWebResponse)
        {
            HttpWebResponse response = (HttpWebResponse)we.Response;
            return response.StatusCode;
        }
    }
    return 0;
}

If you are using .Net 4.0 (or less):

class BetterWebClient : WebClient
{
        private WebRequest _Request = null;

        protected override WebRequest GetWebRequest(Uri address)
        {
            this._Request = base.GetWebRequest(address);

            if (this._Request is HttpWebRequest)
            {
                ((HttpWebRequest)this._Request).AllowAutoRedirect = false;
            }

            return this._Request;
        } 

        public HttpStatusCode StatusCode()
        {
            HttpStatusCode result;

            if (this._Request == null)
            {
                throw (new InvalidOperationException("Unable to retrieve the status 
                       code, maybe you haven't made a request yet."));
            }

            HttpWebResponse response = base.GetWebResponse(this._Request) 
                                       as HttpWebResponse;

            if (response != null)
            {
                result = response.StatusCode;
            }
            else
            {
                throw (new InvalidOperationException("Unable to retrieve the status 
                       code, maybe you haven't made a request yet."));
            }

            return result;
        }
    }

If you are using .Net 4.5.X or newer, switch to HttpClient:

var response = await client.GetAsync("http://www.contoso.com/");
var statusCode = response.StatusCode;

Erik's answer doesn't work on Windows Phone as is. The following does:

class WebClientEx : WebClient
{
    private WebResponse m_Resp = null;

    protected override WebResponse GetWebResponse(WebRequest Req, IAsyncResult ar)
    {
        try
        {
            this.m_Resp = base.GetWebResponse(request);
        }
        catch (WebException ex)
        {
            if (this.m_Resp == null)
                this.m_Resp = ex.Response;
        }
        return this.m_Resp;
    }

    public HttpStatusCode StatusCode
    {
        get
        {
            if (m_Resp != null && m_Resp is HttpWebResponse)
                return (m_Resp as HttpWebResponse).StatusCode;
            else
                return HttpStatusCode.OK;
        }
    }
}

At least it does when using OpenReadAsync; for other xxxAsync methods, careful testing would be highly recommended. The framework calls GetWebResponse somewhere along the code path; all one needs to do is capture and cache the response object.

The fallback code is 200 in this snippet because genuine HTTP errors - 500, 404, etc - are reported as exceptions anyway. The purpose of this trick is to capture non-error codes, in my specific case 304 (Not modified). So the fallback assumes that if the status code is somehow unavailable, at least it's a non-erroneous one.

You should use

if (e.Status == WebExceptionStatus.ProtocolError)
{
   HttpWebResponse response = (HttpWebResponse)ex.Response;             
   if (response.StatusCode == HttpStatusCode.NotFound)
      System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine("Not found!");
}

This is what I use for expanding WebClient functionality. StatusCode and StatusDescription will always contain the most recent response code/description.

                /// <summary>
                /// An expanded web client that allows certificate auth and 
                /// the retrieval of status' for successful requests
                /// </summary>
                public class WebClientCert : WebClient
                {
                    private X509Certificate2 _cert;
                    public WebClientCert(X509Certificate2 cert) : base() { _cert = cert; }
                    protected override WebRequest GetWebRequest(Uri address)
                    {
                        HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)base.GetWebRequest(address);
                        if (_cert != null) { request.ClientCertificates.Add(_cert); }
                        return request;
                    }
                    protected override WebResponse GetWebResponse(WebRequest request)
                    {
                        WebResponse response = null;
                        response = base.GetWebResponse(request);
                        HttpWebResponse baseResponse = response as HttpWebResponse;
                        StatusCode = baseResponse.StatusCode;
                        StatusDescription = baseResponse.StatusDescription;
                        return response;
                    }
                    /// <summary>
                    /// The most recent response statusCode
                    /// </summary>
                    public HttpStatusCode StatusCode { get; set; }
                    /// <summary>
                    /// The most recent response statusDescription
                    /// </summary>
                    public string StatusDescription { get; set; }
                }

Thus you can do a post and get result via:

            byte[] response = null;
            using (WebClientCert client = new WebClientCert())
            {
                response = client.UploadValues(postUri, PostFields);
                HttpStatusCode code = client.StatusCode;
                string description = client.StatusDescription;
                //Use this information
            }