Question

I am new to VB…I am using the following code to make an HTTP request and buffer the response into a String:

 Try
            myHttpWebRequest = CType(WebRequest.Create(strUrl), HttpWebRequest)
            myHttpWebResponse = CType(myHttpWebRequest.GetResponse(), HttpWebResponse)
            receiveStream = myHttpWebResponse.GetResponseStream()
            encode = System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding("utf-8")
            sr = New StreamReader(receiveStream, encode)

            Do Until sr.Peek = -1
                strLine = String.Concat(strLine, sr.ReadLine)
                arrBuff.Add(strLine)
            Loop
        Catch ex As System.Net.WebException
            MsgBox(ex.Message)
        Finally
            myHttpWebResponse.Close()
        End Try
        sr.Close()

This works fine, but errors are not handled well, for example if the request triggers a 500 response the VB code encounters an unhandled exception. Any thoughts on how to make this code better?

Answer 1

Use the HttpWebResponse.StatusCode to determine if the server has sent you anything but a (probably) 200 (OK).