How to get status code from webclient?

Question

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

Answer 1

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.. } 

Answer 2

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; }