WebRequest.Method Property

Definition

When overridden in a descendant class, gets or sets the protocol method to use in this request.

public abstract string Method { get; set; }
public virtual string Method { get; set; }

Property Value

The protocol method to use in this request.

Exceptions

If the property is not overridden in a descendant class, any attempt is made to get or set the property.

Examples

The following example sets the Method property to POST to indicate that the request will post data to the target host.

using System;
using System.Net;
using System.IO;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading;

public class RequestState
{
    // This class stores the request state of the request.
    public WebRequest request;    
    public RequestState()
    {
        request = null;
    }
}

class WebRequest_BeginGetRequeststream
{
    public static ManualResetEvent allDone= new ManualResetEvent(false);
    static void Main()
    {
            // Create a new request to the mentioned URL.
            WebRequest myWebRequest= WebRequest.Create("http://www.contoso.com");

            // Create an instance of the RequestState and assign 
            // 'myWebRequest' to it's request field.
            RequestState myRequestState = new RequestState();
            myRequestState.request = myWebRequest;
            myWebRequest.ContentType="application/x-www-form-urlencoded";

            // Set the 'Method' property to 'POST' to post data to a Uri.
            myRequestState.request.Method="POST";
            // Start the Asynchronous 'BeginGetRequestStream' method call.
            IAsyncResult r=(IAsyncResult) myWebRequest.BeginGetRequestStream(
                new AsyncCallback(ReadCallback),myRequestState);
            // Pause the current thread until the async operation completes.
            Console.WriteLine("main thread waiting...");
            allDone.WaitOne();
            // Assign the response object of 'WebRequest' to a 'WebResponse' variable.
            WebResponse myWebResponse = myWebRequest.GetResponse();
            Console.WriteLine("The string has been posted.");
            Console.WriteLine("Please wait for the response...");

            Stream streamResponse = myWebResponse.GetResponseStream();
            StreamReader streamRead = new StreamReader( streamResponse );
            Char[] readBuff = new Char[256];
            int count = streamRead.Read( readBuff, 0, 256 );
            Console.WriteLine("\nThe contents of the HTML page are ");

            while (count > 0) 
            {
                String outputData = new String(readBuff, 0, count);
                Console.Write(outputData);
                count = streamRead.Read(readBuff, 0, 256);
            }

            // Close the Stream Object.
            streamResponse.Close();
            streamRead.Close();

            // Release the HttpWebResponse Resource.
            myWebResponse.Close();
    }
    private static void ReadCallback(IAsyncResult asynchronousResult)
    {
            RequestState myRequestState =(RequestState) asynchronousResult.AsyncState;
            WebRequest myWebRequest = myRequestState.request;

            // End the Asynchronous request.
            Stream streamResponse = myWebRequest.EndGetRequestStream(asynchronousResult);

            // Create a string that is to be posted to the uri.
            Console.WriteLine("Please enter a string to be posted:");
            string postData = Console.ReadLine();
            // Convert the string into a byte array.
            byte[] byteArray = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(postData);

            // Write the data to the stream.
            streamResponse.Write(byteArray,0,postData.Length);
            streamResponse.Close();
            allDone.Set();
    }
}

Remarks

Caution

WebRequest, HttpWebRequest, ServicePoint, and WebClient are obsolete, and you shouldn't use them for new development. Use HttpClient instead.

When overridden in a descendant class, the Method property contains the request method to use in this request.

Note

The WebRequest class is an abstract class. The actual behavior of WebRequest instances at run time is determined by the descendant class returned by the WebRequest.Create method. For more information about default values and exceptions, see the documentation for the descendant classes, such as HttpWebRequest and FileWebRequest.

Notes to Implementers

The Method property can contain any valid request method for the protocol implemented. The default value must provide a default request/response transaction that does not require protocol-specific properties to be set.

Applies to

Product Versions
.NET Core 1.0, Core 1.1, Core 2.0, Core 2.1, Core 2.2, Core 3.0, Core 3.1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
.NET Framework 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 4.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7, 4.7.1, 4.7.2, 4.8, 4.8.1
.NET Standard 2.0, 2.1
UWP 10.0

See also