WebClient alternative for windows 8?

Question

I use WebClient to fetch Yahoo data for Windows Phone 8 and Android HttpClient With WebClient I can do

 WebClient client = new WebClient();
            


        

Answer 1

You can use HttpClient class, something like this :

public async static Task<string> GetHttpResponse(string url)
{
    var request = new HttpRequestMessage(HttpMethod.Get, url);
    request.Headers.Add("UserAgent", "Windows 8 app client");

    var client = new HttpClient();
    var response = await client.SendAsync(request, HttpCompletionOption.ResponseHeadersRead);

    if (response.IsSuccessStatusCode)
      return await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
    else
     throw new Exception("Error connecting to " + url +" ! Status: " + response.StatusCode);
}

Simpler version would be just :

public async static Task<string> GetHttpResponse(string url)
{
    var client = new HttpClient();
    return await client.GetStringAsync(url);
}

But if http error occurs GetStringAsync will throw HttpResponseException, and as far I can see there is no http status indicated except in exception message.

UPDATE: I didn't noticed that you in fact you are trying to read RSS Feed, you don't need HttpClient and XML parser, just use SyndicationFeed class, here is the example :

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/xaml/hh452994.aspx