WebClient DownloadString not returning anything

Question

I want to get the source code from a Search query of Pirate Bay, I have this in my code but it doesn't return anything:

WebClient webpage = new WebClient();
string source=  webpage.DownloadString("http://thepiratebay.sx/search/documentary/0/99/0");

the WebClient works fine, as You get an empty string this is probably a url mistake — Aleksei Chepovoi
– Aleksei Chepovoi, Commented Oct 24, 2013 at 22:13
My expected result is the source code from that webpage, but it gets me a empty string — Marcelo Cantú
– Marcelo Cantú, Commented Oct 24, 2013 at 22:14
Do you have a firewall or proxy of anything like that which could be causing an outbound connection to fail, or redirect you to another page? — Sam Plus Plus
– Sam Plus Plus, Commented Oct 25, 2013 at 0:49

Noctis · Accepted Answer · 2013-10-25 03:13:54Z

12

Here's a quick test:

xaml:

<Label Content="{Binding ElementName=window_name, Path=SourceTest}"></Label>
<Label Content="{Binding ElementName=window_name, Path=SourceTest2}"></Label>

Code:

string source_url = "http://thepiratebay.sx/search/documentary";

WebClient webpage = new WebClient();
SourceTest = webpage.DownloadString(source_url);
if (SourceTest == "")
SourceTest = "stream was empty.";


source_url = "http://www.google.com";

webpage = new WebClient();
SourceTest2 = webpage.DownloadString(source_url);
if (SourceTest2 == "")
    SourceTest2 = "stream was empty.";

Your URL will return an empty string, Google on the other side, will give you the source you're looking for.

Edit : As I assumed, you need to identify like a web browser. This works with your query:

string source_url = "http://thepiratebay.sx/search/documentary/0/99/0";

using (var webpage = new WebClient())
{
    webpage.Headers[HttpRequestHeader.UserAgent] = "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64) AppleWebKit/535.2 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/15.0.874.121 Safari/535.2";
    SourceTest = webpage.DownloadString(source_url);
}

edited Oct 25, 2013 at 3:13

answered Oct 25, 2013 at 1:03

Noctis

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3 Comments

Noctis Over a year ago

using string source_url = "http://thepiratebay.sx/ will work, so my guess is that they might be filtering requests from non browsers maybe?

Haider Ali Over a year ago

@Noctis your solution to add userAgent in header is worked for me absolutely.

Noctis Over a year ago

@HaiderAliWajihi Yep, because you fool the pirate bay to think you're a browser :). Glad it helped.

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