Using CookieContainer with WebClient class

Question

I ve previously used a CookieContainer with HttpWebRequest and HttpWebResponse sessions  but now  I want to use it with a WebClient  As far as I understand  there is no built-in method like there is for HttpWebRequests  request CookieContainer   How can I collect cookies from a WebClient in a CookieContainer   I googled for this and found the following sample   public class CookieAwareWebClient   WebClient       private readonly CookieContainer m container   new CookieContainer         protected override WebRequest GetWebRequest Uri address                WebRequest request   base GetWebRequest address           HttpWebRequest webRequest   request as HttpWebRequest          if  webRequest    null                        webRequest CookieContainer   m container                    return request            Is this the best way to do it

User · Answer

This one is just extension of article you found    public class WebClientEx   WebClient       public WebClientEx CookieContainer container                this container   container             public CookieContainer CookieContainer                       get   return container                set   container  value                   private CookieContainer container   new CookieContainer         protected override WebRequest GetWebRequest Uri address                WebRequest r   base GetWebRequest address           var request   r as HttpWebRequest          if  request    null                        request CookieContainer   container                    return r             protected override WebResponse GetWebResponse WebRequest request  IAsyncResult result                WebResponse response   base GetWebResponse request  result           ReadCookies response           return response             protected override WebResponse GetWebResponse WebRequest request                WebResponse response   base GetWebResponse request           ReadCookies response           return response             private void ReadCookies WebResponse r                var response   r as HttpWebResponse          if  response    null                        CookieCollection cookies   response Cookies              container Add cookies

User · Answer

I think there s cleaner way where you don t have to create a new webclient  and it ll work with 3rd party libraries as well   internal static class MyWebRequestCreator       private static IWebRequestCreate myCreator       public static IWebRequestCreate MyHttp               get                       if  myCreator    null                                myCreator   new MyHttpRequestCreator                              return myCreator                       private class MyHttpRequestCreator   IWebRequestCreate               public WebRequest Create Uri uri                        var req   System Net WebRequest CreateHttp uri               req CookieContainer   new CookieContainer                return req                      Now all you have to do is opt in for which domains you want to use this       WebRequest RegisterPrefix  http   example com    MyWebRequestCreator MyHttp     That means ANY webrequest that goes to example com will now use your custom webrequest creator  including the standard webclient  This approach means you don t have to touch all you code  You just call the register prefix once and be done with it  You can also register for  http  prefix to opt in for everything everywhere

User · Answer

WebClient wb   new WebClient     wb Headers Add HttpRequestHeader Cookie   somecookie      From Comments  How do you format the name and value of the cookie in place of  somecookie     wb Headers Add HttpRequestHeader Cookie   cookiename cookievalue       For multiple cookies    wb Headers Add HttpRequestHeader Cookie                  cookiename1 cookievalue1                    cookiename2 cookievalue2

User · Answer

The HttpWebRequest modifies the CookieContainer assigned to it  There is no need to process returned cookies  Simply assign your cookie container to every web request   public class CookieAwareWebClient   WebClient       public CookieContainer CookieContainer   get  set      new CookieContainer         protected override WebRequest GetWebRequest Uri uri                WebRequest request   base GetWebRequest uri           if  request is HttpWebRequest                         request as HttpWebRequest  CookieContainer   CookieContainer                    return request

User · Answer

Yes  IMHO  overriding GetWebRequest    is the best solution to WebClient s limited functionalty   Before I knew about this option  I wrote lots of really painful code at the HttpWebRequest layer because WebClient almost  but not quite  did what I needed   Derivation is much easier    Another option is to use the regular WebClient class  but manually populate the Cookie header before making the request and then pull out the Set-Cookies header on the response  There are helper methods on the CookieContainer class which make creating and parsing these headers easier  CookieContainer SetCookies   and CookieContainer GetCookieHeader    respectively    I prefer the former approach since it s easier for the caller and requires less repetitive code than the second option   Also  the derivation approach works the same way for multiple extensibility scenarios  e g  cookies  proxies  etc

[c#] Using CookieContainer with WebClient class

Examples related to c#

Examples related to cookies

Examples related to httpwebrequest

Examples related to webclient

Examples related to cookiecontainer