Access the Contents of a Web Page with C#

Question

I am trying to use C# to access the content of a webpage. For example, I want to grab the text of the body of google homepage.

I know this is doable in C# with its web browser control. But I couldn't find a good, simple example of doing it. All the resources I found online involve creating Forms and GUI, which I don't need, I just need a good old Console Application.

If anyone can provide a simple console-based code snippet that accomplishes the above, it'll be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Actually the WebBrowser is a GUI control used in case you want to visualize a web page (embed and manage Internet Explorer in your windows application). If you just need to get the contents of a web page you could use the WebClient class:

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        using (var client = new WebClient())
        {
            var contents = client.DownloadString("http://www.google.com");
            Console.WriteLine(contents);
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

If you just want the content and not an actual browser, you can use an HttpWebRequest.

Here's a code sample: http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/Forums/ShowMessages.aspx?ThreadID=58261