Inputting Data to a website (not a login screen)

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hi, so im trying to enter strings of data using a web application asp.net but im trying to find out how. all i find is loging in websites and so far i had no luck trying to get it to work by modifying the code i found to suit my needs

so here is what i have so far:

string entry = bookEntry.Text;
            // used to build entire input
            StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

            // used on each read operation
            byte[] buf = new byte[8192];

            // prepare the web page we will be asking for
            HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)
                WebRequest.Create("http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchEntry");
            StreamReader responseRead = new StreamReader(
                request.GetResponse().GetResponseStream());

            string responseData = responseRead.ReadToEnd();
            responseRead.Close();

            string postData =
                String.Format(
                "&tn2={1}&sortBy={2}&findBook-advancedSearch=Start%Search",
                entry, 2);

            CookieContainer cookies = new CookieContainer();

            request = WebRequest.Create("http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchEntry") as HttpWebRequest;
            request.Method = "POST";
            request.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";
            request.CookieContainer = cookies;

            StreamWriter requestWriter = new StreamWriter(request.GetRequestStream());
            requestWriter.Write(postData);
            requestWriter.Close();
            request.GetResponse().Close();

            responseData = responseRead.ReadToEnd();
            responseRead.Close();

            Response.Write(responseData);

the website im trying to enter data to is www.abebooks.com[^]

thanks in advanced

Posted 13-Dec-13 6:00am

slayasty

Updated 13-Dec-13 6:05am

Richard C Bishop

v2

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bowlturner 13-Dec-13 13:48pm

I'm going to have to ask you clarify what it is you are actually trying to do.

slayasty 13-Dec-13 13:59pm

what i am trying to do is using my web application to enter the book title or isbn number, select the criteria i need and hit the search button. the problem is how to input this data from my web application to this website

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idenizeni · Accepted Answer · 2013-12-13T09:09:00

Your code has multiple issues. I suggest you read up on screen-scraping and gain a general understanding on how http requests/responses are processed. Also, you should get fiddler(http://fiddler2.com/home[^]), this is a tool that lets you view the communication between the web browser and the web server. Once you know what's being communicated you can start to mimic the process in code.

The page you are calling is actually redirecting to another page and passing a querystring for the search information. So, you don't actually have to do a POST. Instead you can make a GET call and pass your data in the querystring. It's usually better to follow the steps a real user would make when attempting to screen-scrap but sometimes you just need results.

My code below has simplified the process and is not the best way to go about this but it will get you the results you want.

C#

 string searchText = "steven king";

// notice this url is calling SearchResults
string url = string.Format("http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an={0}&sortby={1}",searchText,2);
            
// prepare request
CookieContainer cookies = new CookieContainer();
HttpWebRequest request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(url);
HttpWebResponse response = null;

// set header values
request.Method = "GET";
request.CookieContainer = cookies;

// get response data
response = (HttpWebResponse)request.GetResponse();
request = null;
            
string responseData = new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream()).ReadToEnd();
response.Close();
response = null;

// show results
Response.Write(responseData);