How to use HttpWebRequest (.NET) asynchronously?

Question

How can I use HttpWebRequest (.NET, C#) asynchronously?

Answer 1

Everyone so far has been wrong, because BeginGetResponse() does some work on the current thread. From the documentation:

The BeginGetResponse method requires some synchronous setup tasks to complete (DNS resolution, proxy detection, and TCP socket connection, for example) before this method becomes asynchronous. As a result, this method should never be called on a user interface (UI) thread because it might take considerable time (up to several minutes depending on network settings) to complete the initial synchronous setup tasks before an exception for an error is thrown or the method succeeds.

So to do this right:

void DoWithResponse(HttpWebRequest request, Action responseAction)
{
    Action wrapperAction = () =>
    {
        request.BeginGetResponse(new AsyncCallback((iar) =>
        {
            var response = (HttpWebResponse)((HttpWebRequest)iar.AsyncState).EndGetResponse(iar);
            responseAction(response);
        }), request);
    };
    wrapperAction.BeginInvoke(new AsyncCallback((iar) =>
    {
        var action = (Action)iar.AsyncState;
        action.EndInvoke(iar);
    }), wrapperAction);
}

You can then do what you need to with the response. For example:

HttpWebRequest request;
// init your request...then:
DoWithResponse(request, (response) => {
    var body = new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream()).ReadToEnd();
    Console.Write(body);
});