Doing POST to server from web-service

Question

Hosted a web service that do some POST to ASPX pages.

The code:

 [WebMethod]
        public string Test()
        {
            sb.AppendLine("Start");
            try
            {
                var t = new Thread(MyThreadStartMethod);
                t.SetApartmentState(ApartmentState.STA);
                t.Start();
                t.Join();
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                sb = sb.AppendLine(ex.ToString());
            }
            sb.AppendLine("Finish");
            return sb.ToString();
        }

         private void MyThreadStartMethod(object obj)
        {
            try
            {
                WebBrowser browser = new WebBrowser();
                browser.DocumentCompleted += browser_DocumentCompleted;
                browser.Url = new Uri("http://www.wikipedia.com");
                while (browser.ReadyState != WebBrowserReadyState.Complete)
                {
                    System.Windows.Forms.Application.DoEvents();
                    Thread.Sleep(60);
                }
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                sb = sb.AppendLine(ex.ToString());
            }
        }

        void browser_DocumentCompleted(object sender, WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventArgs e)
        {
            sb = sb.AppendLine("Document completed: " + e.Url);
        }

When trying to run it on my shared hosting server I always get timeout error.

Tried the next code to check if I can connect to third-part address and It works OK.

private bool checkUrl(string url)
{
    try
    {
        HttpWebRequest request = WebRequest.Create(url) as HttpWebRequest;
        request.Method = "HEAD";
        HttpWebResponse response = request.GetResponse() as HttpWebResponse;
        return (response.StatusCode == HttpStatusCode.OK);
    }
    catch
    {
        return false;
    }
}

Anyone can explain the problem running the first code? Do they block something?

Answer 1

You have to remove next 2 lines from your code

System.Windows.Forms.Application.DoEvents();
Thread.Sleep(60);

as it is stopping your webbrowser control from completing Navigate.

The best sample on how to run WebBrowser control in separate thread was proposed by Hans Passant