How to download files from web url ?

Question

Hello Actually i have a website url where these files are stored. Example: http://www.mywebsite.com/files/file.txt http://www.mywebsite.com/files/image1.gif http://www.mywebsite.com/files/logo.jpg http://www.mywebsite.com/files/letter.doc http://www.mywebsite.com/files/dll/barcode.dll http://www.mywebsite.com/files/dll/MyLib.dll http://www.mywebsite.com/files/dll/Common.dll http://www.mywebsite.com/files/exe/MyApp.exe etc... So my target is to build a small Device Application (Windows CE) in order to update these files on the device itself everytime the user clicked Update button. So I would like to download the content of the main folder http://www.mywebsite.com/files/ as is (e.g. with all files & sub-folders) on the device. Please can anyone help me to know how to connect to the URL and download the list of files ? I really appreciate if you can give me a sample code Paul

Senthilkumar · Answer

Hi Following approaches can be used to achieve it using ASP.Net and C#: 1) If file is in the same web server where web application or website is running: a) You can just add a link to the file to be downloaded. Use following code in your ASP.Net page: Download OR Download When user click on the link either file will be opened directly in the web browser (if the plug-in for the downloaded file is installed) or user will be prompted to Open/Save the file. But I felt this approach is a static method and aslo not very secure. b) The second approach to do this is a dynamic method i.e. programmatically downloading a file from web server to client. First add a LinkButton in your Asp.Net page use following code snippet: Download Now go to code behid file of the ASP.Net page and write following C# code in the Click event of the LinkButton: protected void _lbtDownload_Click(object sender EventArgs e) { HttpWebRequest objRequest = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(http://www.SiteName.com/Downloads/Sample.zip); HttpWebResponse objResponse = (HttpWebResponse)objRequest.GetResponse(); int bufferSize = 1; Response.Clear(); Response.ClearHeaders(); Response.ClearContent(); Response.AppendHeader(Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=Sample.zip); Response.AppendHeader(Content-Length objResponse.ContentLength.ToString()); Response.ContentType = application/download; byte[] byteBuffer = new byte[bufferSize + 1]; MemoryStream memStrm = new MemoryStream(byteBuffer true); Stream strm = objRequest.GetResponse().GetResponseStream(); byte[] bytes = new byte[bufferSize + 1]; while (strm.Read(byteBuffer 0 byteBuffer.Length) > 0) { Response.BinaryWrite(memStrm.ToArray()); Response.Flush(); } Response.Close(); Response.End(); memStrm.Close(); memStrm.Dispose(); strm.Dispose(); } When user will click on LinkButton above code will be executed which will download the Sample.zip file to the user's computer. 2) If file is in the remote file server: In this case the same code as in above section 1(a) can be used with little modifications. First add a LinkButton in your Asp.Net page use following code snippet: Download Now again go to code behid file of the ASP.Net page and write following C# code in the Click event of the LinkButton: protected void _lbtDownload_Click(object sender EventArgs e) { FileInfo file = new FileInfo(@\RemoteServerIP_OR_Name\FolderName\Sample.zip); Response.Clear(); Response.ClearHeaders(); Response.ClearContent(); Response.AppendHeader(Content-Disposition attachment; filename = Sample.zip); Response.AppendHeader(Content-Length file.Length.ToString()); Response.ContentType = application/download; Response.WriteFile(file.FullName); Response.Flush(); Response.Close(); Response.End(); } Note: Please make sure that the user ID under which your web application or website is running must have atleast read access to the remote file server. References: http://www.etechplanet.com/blog/downloading-file-using-aspnet-and-c.aspx http://www.west-wind.com/weblog/posts/2007/May/21/Downloading-a-File-with-a-Save-As-Dialog-in-ASPNET

Bryian Tan · Answer

hello Have you try to use WebRequest and WebResponse Classes ? Here are few examples. http://www.codeguru.com/columns/dotnettips/article.php/c7005/Downloading-Files-with-the-WebRequest-and-WebResponse-Classes.htm http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/CSASPNETRemoteUploadAndDown-a80b7cb5