How can I get the WebClient to use Cookies?

Question

I would like the VB.net WebClient to remember cookies.

I have searched and tried numerous overloads classes.

I want to login to a website via POST, then POST to another page and get its contents whilst still retaining my session.

Is this possible with VB.net without using WebBrowser control ?

I tried Chilkat.HTTP and it works, but I want to use .Net libraries.

Answer 1

Create a new class the inherits from WebClient that stores the CookieContainer like @Guffa says. Here's code that I use that does that and also keeps the referer alive:

Public Class CookieAwareWebClient     Inherits WebClient      Private cc As New CookieContainer()     Private lastPage As String      Protected Overrides Function GetWebRequest(ByVal address As System.Uri) As System.Net.WebRequest         Dim R = MyBase.GetWebRequest(address)         If TypeOf R Is HttpWebRequest Then             With DirectCast(R, HttpWebRequest)                 .CookieContainer = cc                 If Not lastPage Is Nothing Then                     .Referer = lastPage                 End If             End With         End If         lastPage = address.ToString()         Return R     End Function End Class 

Here's the C# version of the above code:

using System.Net; class CookieAwareWebClient : WebClient {     private CookieContainer cc = new CookieContainer();     private string lastPage;      protected override WebRequest GetWebRequest(System.Uri address)     {         WebRequest R = base.GetWebRequest(address);         if (R is HttpWebRequest)         {             HttpWebRequest WR = (HttpWebRequest)R;             WR.CookieContainer = cc;             if (lastPage != null)             {                 WR.Referer = lastPage;             }         }         lastPage = address.ToString();         return R;     } }