C#/.NET Webclient, wait for page to finish loading

Question

I'm trying to retrieve the html of a page with some Ajax on.

Problem is that Webclient.Downloadstring() returns to fast, so the Ajax page haven't finished loading => I'm not getting the right html :(

Is it possible to call another function or similar, so I for example request the page, wait a few seconds and then read the response? (so I allow the Ajax to finish loading before I retrieve the html)

Thanks, Louisa

Answer 1

The WebClient by default only fetches the (HTML) contents of a single URL. It does not parse HTML and thus does not know about any CSS, images or javascript used on the page. You are trying to emulate the functionality of a full-blown browser, for which the WebClient alone is insufficient.

To achieve your desired behaviour, you will have to not only retrieve the HTML, but then also parse it, retrieve and execute javascript on the page and then get the resulting DOM. This is most easily achieved through a library that provides the functionality of a webbrowser to your application. Examples include System.Windows.Forms.WebBrowser (WinForms), System.Windows.Controls.WebBrowser (WPF) or Awesomium .