Send http request to server without expecting a response

Question

I have a need to send a POST http request to a server,but it should not expect a response. What method should i use for it?

I have been using

 WebRequest request2 = WebRequest.Create("http://local.ape-project.org:6969");
 request2.Method = "POST";
 String sendcmd = "[{\"cmd\":\"SEND\",\"chl\":3,\"params\":{\"msg\":\"Helloworld!\",\"pipe\":\"" + sub1 + "\"},\"sessid\":\"" + sub + "\"}]";
 byte[] byteArray2 = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(sendcmd);
 Stream dataStream2 = request2.GetRequestStream();
 dataStream2.Write(byteArray2, 0, byteArray2.Length);
 dataStream2.Close();
 WebResponse response2 = request2.GetResponse();

to send a request and get back a response. This works fine if the request will get a response back from the server. But, for my need, i just need to send a POST request. And there will be no response associated with the request i am sending. How do i do it?

If i use the request2.GetRespnse() command, i get an error that "The connection was closed unexpectedly"

Any help will be appreciated. thanks

Answer 1

If you're using the HTTP protocol, there has to be a response.

However, it doesn't need to be a very big response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: insert date here
Content-Length: 0
\r\n

Answer 2

refer to this answer.

What you are looking for, I think, is the Fire and Forget pattern.

Answer 3

HTTP requires response as already mentioned by Mike Caron. But as a quick (dirty) fix you could catch the "connnection closed unexpectedly" error and continue.

Answer 4

If your server is OK with this, you can always use RAW socket to send request then close it.

Answer 5

Take a look at this it may help.

public static void SetRequest(string mXml)
{
    HttpWebRequest webRequest = (HttpWebRequest)HttpWebRequest.CreateHttp("http://dork.com/service");
    webRequest.Method = "POST";
    webRequest.Headers["SOURCE"] = "WinApp";

    // Decide your encoding here

    //webRequest.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";
    webRequest.ContentType = "text/xml; charset=utf-8";

    // You should setContentLength
    byte[] content = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(mXml);
    webRequest.ContentLength = content.Length;

    var reqStream = await webRequest.GetRequestStreamAsync();
    reqStream.Write(content, 0, content.Length);

    var res = await httpRequest(webRequest);

}

Answer 6

If you don't want to wait for response you can send data in another thread or simple use WebClient.UploadStringAsync , but note that response always take place after request. Using another thread for request allows you to ignore response processing.