HttpWebRequest-The remote server returned an error: (400) Bad Request

Question

I am getting The remote server returned an error: (400) Bad Request error while running the following code. I am trying to upload xml file on the http server. My xml file contains tag for the username,password and domain and when i am trying to connect is manually i am able to connect it,but using same credentials when i am trying to connect it through this code, i am getting 400 Bad Request error. Please suggest me how to overcome this issue. Thanks `

  public static void UploadHttp(string xml)     
    {

        string txtResults = string.Empty;
        try
        {
            string url = "http://my.server.com/upload.aspx ";
            HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)HttpWebRequest.Create(url);
            request.KeepAlive = false;
            request.SendChunked = true;
            request.AllowAutoRedirect = true;
            request.Method = "Post";
            request.ContentType = "text/xml";
            var encoder = new UTF8Encoding();
            var data = encoder.GetBytes(xml);
            request.ContentLength = data.Length;
            var reqStream = request.GetRequestStream();
            reqStream.Write(data, 0, data.Length);
            reqStream.Close();
            WebResponse response = null;
            response = request.GetResponse();
            var reader = new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream());
            var str = reader.ReadToEnd();
        }
        catch (WebException ex)
        {
            if (ex.Status == WebExceptionStatus.ProtocolError)
            {
                HttpWebResponse err = ex.Response as HttpWebResponse;
                if (err != null)
                {
                    string htmlResponse = new StreamReader(err.GetResponseStream()).ReadToEnd();
                    txtResults = string.Format("{0} {1}", err.StatusDescription, htmlResponse);
                }
            }
            else
            {

            }
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            txtResults = ex.ToString();
        }
    }`

I doubt it'd make any difference but you could try removing the trailing space from the URL and using "POST" block-caps (or there must be a constant for this?). Can you see anything in the server logs? You could also try catching the two requests, manually and through the app, in Fiddler to look for differences. Does your ASPX definitely accept POSTs of XML text, though? — Rup

Ben Ben · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-10T16:46:56

Are you sure you should be using POST not PUT?

POST is usually used with application/x-www-urlencoded formats. If you are using a REST API, you should maybe be using PUT? If you are uploading a file you probably need to use multipart/form-data. Not always, but usually, that is the right thing to do..

Also you don't seem to be using the credentials to log in - you need to use the Credentials property of the HttpWebRequest object to send the username and password.

HttpWebRequest-The remote server returned an error: (400) Bad Request

3 Answers