Login to website and use cookie to get source for another page

Question

I am trying to login to the TV Rage website and get the source code of the My Shows page. I am successfully logging in (I have checked the response from my post request) bu

Answer 1

Here's a simplified and working version of your code using a WebClient:

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        var shows = GetSourceForMyShowsPage();
        Console.WriteLine(shows);
    }

    static string GetSourceForMyShowsPage()
    {
        using (var client = new WebClientEx())
        {
            var values = new NameValueCollection
            {
                { "login_name", "xxx" },
                { "login_pass", "xxxx" },
            };
            // Authenticate
            client.UploadValues("http://www.tvrage.com/login.php", values);
            // Download desired page
            return client.DownloadString("http://www.tvrage.com/mytvrage.php?page=myshows");
        }
    }
}

/// <summary>
/// A custom WebClient featuring a cookie container
/// </summary>

public class WebClientEx : WebClient
{
    public CookieContainer CookieContainer { get; private set; }

    public WebClientEx()
    {
        CookieContainer = new CookieContainer();
    }

    protected override WebRequest GetWebRequest(Uri address)
    {
        var request = base.GetWebRequest(address);
        if (request is HttpWebRequest)
        {
            (request as HttpWebRequest).CookieContainer = CookieContainer;
        }
        return request;
    }
}