HTTPWebResponse - String back to Raw Data?

[Spilled]

Hi, My application makes a POST to a website that responds with encrypted data. When I use httpwebrequest/httpwebresponse and Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes() to convert the string back to a byte array and pass it to my decrypt function along with the key the decryption fails. Now, I know my decryption function is working properly because if i use tcpclient and make the POST the hard way and parse the data manually, pass it to my decryption method it works so my question to you is how can I get the response from httpwebresponse back as a raw byte array or how can i convert the string back? Here is how I am handling the response:

                Response = (HttpWebResponse)Request.GetResponse();
                Stream receiveStream = Response.GetResponseStream();
                StreamReader readStream = new StreamReader(receiveStream,
                System.Text.Encoding.UTF8);
                string sResponse = readStream.ReadToEnd();

 

[jmcilhinney]

The data from the stream is binary to start with so why would you convert it to text and then back to binary again? Why not just use the original binary data?

 

[Spilled]

Thats my problem, I'm trying to get the original binary data and still use httpwebresponse/httpwebrequest. Is there a way to do this?

 

[JohnH]

Moderation note, this is a VB.Net forum, use VB.Net language when posting code here.

 

[Spilled]

Moderation note, this is a VB.Net forum, use VB.Net language when posting code here.

Ok, Ill port it next time sorry.

 

[jmcilhinney]

Thats my problem, I'm trying to get the original binary data and still use httpwebresponse/httpwebrequest. Is there a way to do this?

Of course there is. In your code, 'receivedStream' is a Stream and all you can get from a Stream is binary data. Your StreamReader is actually reading that binary data and converting it to text. If you don't want text then don't use a StreamReader. Just read the binary data directly from the Stream. There is no method that will just read all the data available from a Stream so, like the StreamReader does internally, you need to read it in blocks. Here's a method that will do just that:

Private Function ReadToEnd(source As Stream) As Byte()
    'Read the data in 4K blocks.
    Const BUFFER_SIZE As Integer = 4096

    Dim buffer(BUFFER_SIZE - 1) As Byte
    Dim tempData As New List(Of Byte)

    'Read the first block of data.
    Dim bytesReadCount = source.Read(buffer, 0, BUFFER_SIZE)

    'Keep reading as long as the buffer was filled, indicating that there may be more data.
    Do While bytesReadCount = BUFFER_SIZE
        'Append the last block to the full list.
        tempData.AddRange(buffer)

        'Read the next block of data.
        bytesReadCount = source.Read(buffer, 0, BUFFER_SIZE)
    Loop

    'Check whether there was any data retrieved on the last read.
    If bytesReadCount > 0 Then
        Dim partialBuffer(bytesReadCount - 1) As Byte

        'Get just the data that was read from the buffer.
        Array.Copy(buffer, partialBuffer, bytesReadCount)

        'Append the last block.
        tempData.AddRange(partialBuffer)
    End If

    Return tempData.ToArray()
End Function

 

[jmcilhinney]

Moderation note, this is a VB.Net forum, use VB.Net language when posting code here.

I didn't even notice that myself. That's what can happen when you're using multiple forums in multiple languages at the same time: you forget where you are.

Ok, Ill port it next time sorry.

You don't have to port it. Notice at the top of the page is a link to our sister site for C# questions. Just post there instead.