Is it possible to read from a url into a System.IO.Stream object?

Question

I am attempting to read from a url into a System.IO.Stream object. I tried to use

Dim stream as Stream = New FileStream(msgURL, FileMode.Open)

but I get an error that URI formats are not supported with FileStream objects. Is there some method I can use that inherits from System.IO.Stream that is able to read from a URL?

Thomas Levesque · Answer 1 · 2014-01-21T13:53:25.530

36

Use WebClient.OpenRead :

Using wc As New WebClient()
    Using stream As Stream = wc.OpenRead(msgURL)
        ...
    End Using
End Using

edited Jan 21 '14 at 13:53

answered Aug 03 '09 at 16:40

Thomas Levesque

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Ah, I didn't know OpenRead existed. I'll remember that one. – Bojan Rajkovic Aug 03 '09 at 16:42
1

I didn't know either... I just guessed something like that existed, and checked in MSDN library ;) – Thomas Levesque Aug 03 '09 at 16:45
Of course the simplest way... Add code to show closing of the stream and disposing of the web client, and it's just perfect. :) – Guffa Aug 03 '09 at 16:48

score 28 · Accepted Answer · edited Jul 30 '18 at 04:56

28

VB.Net:

Dim req As WebRequest = HttpWebRequest.Create("url here")
Using stream As Stream = req.GetResponse().GetResponseStream()

End Using

C#:

var req = System.Net.WebRequest.Create("url here");
using (Stream stream = req.GetResponse().GetResponseStream())
{

}

edited Jul 30 '18 at 04:56

Fab

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answered Aug 03 '09 at 16:40

Joel Coehoorn

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Using this code I wasn't able to deserialize the content on the other end of the web request. I suggest using Thomas Levesque's answer below, as it worked perfectly. – Nathan C. Tresch Apr 14 '14 at 14:56

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 03 '09 at 16:41

Yes, you can use a HttpWebRequest object to get a response stream:

HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(url);
HttpWebResponse response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse(); 
Stream receiveStream = response.GetResponseStream();
// read the stream
receiveStream.Close();
response.Close();

(Stripped down and simplifed from the docs).

Is it possible to read from a url into a System.IO.Stream object?

3 Answers3