Unable to download file fdrom an authenticated website

[Sagar Jain]

Hi,

I am trying to build a c# apllication that should log in to a site and download files. I'm using WebClient.DownoadFile() method to accomplish this.

Here is the code snippet:

using (WebClient wc = new WebClient())
{
wc.BaseAddress = "https://www.alabama.com/incoming/";

string username = "user";
string password = "play";
wc.Credentials = new NetworkCredential (username, password);
wc.DownloadFile ("https://www.alabama.com/incoming/guestbook.txt", "guestbook.txt");

}

After the execution of the above block, when I check for the content of the downloaded file, I see the html scripts for the log in page and not the actual file content. Basically it is not logging in. Can somenoe let me know why is it so? Is there any other alternate method to download files from a site that requires user authentication?

[Plater]

If there is a login page, then it is probably not using webauthentication.
The request cannot just magically fill in the form for you.
You are going to have to generate the log in request, parse the response and send back any cookies/session-cookies before you can download what you are after

[Sagar Jain]

Thanks Plater.

I am new to .net. Can you please tell me how this can be done?

[Plater]

Take a look at the HttpWebRequest object. You will probably need to use a few transactions from that to get the job done