I need to automate the download of a file from this site http://stats.smith.com/reports/Default.aspx?btnGo=View+Report. My problem is once I click on the submit buttom I lose control and a download dialog pops up. Is there a way to download the file using c# and avoid the download dialog? I'm currently using the WebBrowser object in the Forms assembly to navigate through the page.
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Take a look at the WebClient class
Jason Miesionczek
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The problem with that is I don't have a uri to use to download the content. – Steven Oct 06 '11 at 22:23
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If you want to save a downloaded file to the filesystem from a web browser, there must be user interaction. A web page does not have permission to muck about in a client's file system.
If you want to display the page in the browser, you can try removing the Content-Disposition=attachment;... server response header when the file is downloaded. This will only work if the client has the browser set to display such file types inside the browser.
gilly3
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Your question doesn't specify what you're using to download the file.
If you're asking if you can have a program that runs on a client (either a WinForms app, a console app, or a Windows Service) then you can download a file from a web site using the System.Net.WebClient class and calling the DownloadFile() method.
The accepted answer here (slightly different than you question, so it's not a duplicate) has a link to show how to download a file that requires an HTTP post first.
If you're trying to somehow automate Internet Explorer via a javascript from a web page you're hosting to force a file to download on a user without displaying the dialog box, then no. You can't.
