How to post data to specific URL using WebClient in C#

I need to use "HTTP Post" with WebClient to post some data to a specific URL I have.

Now, I know this can be accomplished with WebRequest but for some reasons I want to use WebClient instead. Is that possible? If so, can someone show me some example or point me to the right direction?

I just found the solution and yea it was easier than I thought :)

so here is the solution:

string URI = "http://www.myurl.com/post.php";
string myParameters = "param1=value1&param2=value2&param3=value3";

using (WebClient wc = new WebClient())
{
    wc.Headers[HttpRequestHeader.ContentType] = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";
    string HtmlResult = wc.UploadString(URI, myParameters);
}

it works like charm :)

There is a built in method called UploadValues that can send HTTP POST (or any kind of HTTP methods) AND handles the construction of request body (concatenating parameters with "&" and escaping characters by url encoding) in proper form data format:

using(WebClient client = new WebClient())
{
    var reqparm = new System.Collections.Specialized.NameValueCollection();
    reqparm.Add("param1", "<any> kinds & of = ? strings");
    reqparm.Add("param2", "escaping is already handled");
    byte[] responsebytes = client.UploadValues("http://localhost", "POST", reqparm);
    string responsebody = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(responsebytes);
}

Using WebClient.UploadString or WebClient.UploadData you can POST data to the server easily. I’ll show an example using UploadData, since UploadString is used in the same manner as DownloadString.

byte[] bret = client.UploadData("http://www.website.com/post.php", "POST",
                System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes("field1=value1&field2=value2") );
 
string sret = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII.GetString(bret);

More: http://www.daveamenta.com/2008-05/c-webclient-usage/

string URI = "site.com/mail.php";
using (WebClient client = new WebClient())
{
    System.Collections.Specialized.NameValueCollection postData = 
        new System.Collections.Specialized.NameValueCollection()
       {
              { "to", emailTo },  
              { "subject", currentSubject },
              { "body", currentBody }
       };
    string pagesource = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(client.UploadValues(URI, postData));
}

//Making a POST request using WebClient.
Function()
{    
  WebClient wc = new WebClient();
        
  var URI = new Uri("http://your_uri_goes_here");

  //If any encoding is needed.
  wc.Headers["Content-Type"] = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";
  //Or any other encoding type.

  //If any key needed

  wc.Headers["KEY"] = "Your_Key_Goes_Here";

  wc.UploadStringCompleted += 
      new UploadStringCompletedEventHandler(wc_UploadStringCompleted);

  wc.UploadStringAsync(URI,"POST","Data_To_Be_sent");    
}

void wc__UploadStringCompleted(object sender, UploadStringCompletedEventArgs e)    
{  
  try            
  {          
     MessageBox.Show(e.Result); 
     //e.result fetches you the response against your POST request.         
  }
  catch(Exception exc)         
  {             
     MessageBox.Show(exc.ToString());            
  }
}

Using simple client.UploadString(adress, content); normally works fine but I think it should be remembered that a WebException will be thrown if not a HTTP successful status code is returned. I usually handle it like this to print any exception message the remote server is returning:

try
{
    postResult = client.UploadString(address, content);
}
catch (WebException ex)
{
    String responseFromServer = ex.Message.ToString() + " ";
    if (ex.Response != null)
    {
        using (WebResponse response = ex.Response)
        {
            Stream dataRs = response.GetResponseStream();
            using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(dataRs))
            {
                responseFromServer += reader.ReadToEnd();
                _log.Error("Server Response: " + responseFromServer);
            }
        }
    }
    throw;
}

Using webapiclient with model send serialize json parameter request.

PostModel.cs

    public string Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Surname { get; set; }
    public int Age { get; set; }

WebApiClient.cs

internal class WebApiClient  : IDisposable
  {

    private bool _isDispose;

    public void Dispose()
    {
        Dispose(true);
        GC.SuppressFinalize(this);
    }

    public void Dispose(bool disposing)
    {
        if (!_isDispose)
        {

            if (disposing)
            {

            }
        }

        _isDispose = true;
    }

	private void SetHeaderParameters(WebClient client)
    {
        client.Headers.Clear();
        client.Headers.Add("Content-Type", "application/json");
        client.Encoding = Encoding.UTF8;
    }

	public async Task<T> PostJsonWithModelAsync<T>(string address, string data,)
    {
        using (var client = new WebClient())
        {
            SetHeaderParameters(client);
            string result = await client.UploadStringTaskAsync(address, data); //  method:
    //The HTTP method used to send the file to the resource. If null, the default is  POST 
            return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<T>(result);
        }
    }
}

Business caller method

    public async Task<ResultDTO> GetResultAsync(PostModel model)
    {
        try
        {
            using (var client = new WebApiClient())
            {
                var serializeModel= JsonConvert.SerializeObject(model);// using Newtonsoft.Json;
                var response = await client.PostJsonWithModelAsync<ResultDTO>("http://www.website.com/api/create", serializeModel);
                return response;
            }
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            throw new Exception(ex.Message);
        }

    }

Most of the answers are old. Just wanted to share what worked for me. In the interest of doing things asynchronously i.e. to post data to specific URL using WebClient asynchronously in .NET 6.0 Preview 7, .NET Core and other versions can be done using WebClient.UploadStringTaskAsync Method.

Use namespace System.Net; and for a class ResponseType to capture the response from the server, we can use this method to POST data to a specific URL. Make sure to use the await keyword while calling this method

    public async Task<ResponseType> MyAsyncServiceCall()
    {
        try
        {
            var uri = new Uri("http://your_uri");
            var body= "param1=value1&param2=value2&param3=value3";

            using (var wc = new WebClient())
            {
                wc.Headers[HttpRequestHeader.Authorization] = "yourKey"; // Can be Bearer token, API Key etc.....
                wc.Headers[HttpRequestHeader.ContentType] = "application/json"; // Is about the payload/content of the current request or response. Do not use it if the request doesn't have a payload/ body.
                wc.Headers[HttpRequestHeader.Accept] = "application/json"; // Tells the server the kind of response the client will accept.
                wc.Headers[HttpRequestHeader.UserAgent] = "PostmanRuntime/7.28.3"; 
                
                string result = await wc.UploadStringTaskAsync(uri, body);
                return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<ResponseType>(result);
            }
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            throw new Exception(e.Message);
        }
    }

Here is the crisp answer:

public String sendSMS(String phone, String token) {
    WebClient webClient = WebClient.create(smsServiceUrl);

    SMSRequest smsRequest = new SMSRequest();
    smsRequest.setMessage(token);
    smsRequest.setPhoneNo(phone);
    smsRequest.setTokenId(smsServiceTokenId);

    Mono<String> response = webClient.post()
          .uri(smsServiceEndpoint)
          .header(HttpHeaders.CONTENT_TYPE, MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON_VALUE)
          .body(Mono.just(smsRequest), SMSRequest.class)
          .retrieve().bodyToMono(String.class);

    String deliveryResponse = response.block();
    if (deliveryResponse.equalsIgnoreCase("success")) {
      return deliveryResponse;
    }
    return null;
}