How to read response headers in C#?

Question

I have declared a class ClientClass which inherits from WebClient. I am using this class to define an HttpWebRequest object since I want to pass SSL certificate along with the request for client authentication.

public class ClientClass : WebClient
{
    protected override WebRequest GetWebRequest(Uri address)
    {
        HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)base.GetWebRequest(address);
        request = (HttpWebRequest)base.GetWebRequest(address);
        request.ClientCertificates.Add(GetCertificate());
        return request;
    }

    private static X509Certificate2 GetCertificate()
    {
            string certificateThumbprint = AADHelper.DecryptConfigurationSetting(ConfigHelper.CertificateThumbprint);
            string thumbprint = certificateThumbprint;
            X509Store store = new X509Store(StoreName.My, StoreLocation.CurrentUser);
            store.Open(OpenFlags.ReadOnly | OpenFlags.OpenExistingOnly);
            List<X509Certificate2> list = store.Certificates.Cast<X509Certificate2>().ToList();
            X509Certificate2 clientCertificate = list.Find(c => c.Thumbprint != null && c.Thumbprint.Equals(thumbprint, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase));
            return clientCertificate;
    }



}

Using UploadData Method of WebClient Class, I am able to send POST request and get response string. But I want to receive response headers also along with the string. I thought of using HttpWebResponse for response but I am unsure how I will be able to send post request.

My code for sending POST request is as follows:

using (var client = new ClientClass())
                {
                    client.Headers.Add("content-type", "application/json");
                      client.Headers.Add("x-ms-tracking-id", TrackingId.ToString());
                    string rawResponse;
                    rawResponse = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(client.UploadData(Url, "POST", Encoding.Default.GetBytes(jsonString)));      dataAccessLayer.InsertKeyReplacementKFSAudit(keyReplacementID, TrackingId, jsonString, rawResponse, request.User, startTime, endTime);
                    }

Could you help me with how I can read response headers as well. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

You can use client.ResponseHeaders to retrieve response headers.

        try
        {
            rawResponse = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(client.UploadData(Url, "POST", Encoding.Default.GetBytes(jsonString)));
            var responseHeaders = client.ResponseHeaders;
        }
        catch (WebException wex) // To handle error
        {
            // wex.Response.Headers // You can retrieve the headers
            //((HttpWebResponse)wex.Response).StatusCode //You can handle StatusCode like this;
        }