Download String From Address "http://www.last.fm/music/Boney%20M./+images"

Question

I`m trying to download string from address "http://www.last.fm/music/Boney%20M./+images",but return null,

WebClient webClient = new WebClient();
string html = webClient.DownloadString(new Uri("http://www.last.fm/music/Boney%20M./+images"));

When visiting with my browser, i think it redirected to `http://www.last.fm/music/Boney+M./+images` (notice the missing `%20`). I dont know how WebClient handles redirects but Try that new redirected address and see what happens. — mrmoje, Aug 17 '13 at 16:15
@Moje I believe you're on to something. When executing the above in PowerShell I got `Exception calling "DownloadString" with "1" argument(s): "Too many automatic redirections were attempted."`. FWIW, replacing the space with a `+` doesn't seem to help either. — lc., Aug 17 '13 at 16:18
Possibly related: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/518181/too-many-automatic-redirections-were-attempted-error-message-when-using-a-http — lc., Aug 17 '13 at 16:23
Doesn't make sense here. The first redirect changes the space to a `+`. But if I retry with that address I'm getting *another* redirect to itself. I'm guessing it's looking for some headers and caught in a redirect loop since they are missing... I wonder why @OnoSendai got it to work. — lc., Aug 17 '13 at 16:34

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 17 '13 at 16:20

Just tried it on a test application under VS2012 Express, and it's working as intended.

Some thoughts:

The problem may lie in the fact that you are behind a proxy, and you may need to create a WebProxy object and provide your credentials.
Sometimes (which is not the case, since it worked for me) sites expect some headers - for example HTTP_REFERER.

1 Answers1