Question

I have code that uses an HttpWebRequest to request a .ASP page (asp 3.0), with some parameters in the URL. That ASP page will generate a PDF by getting some data from a database. Due to error in the ASP code, I’m getting a WebException with IIS’s 500 server error when I try to get the response from the request. And that’s fine, but the exception’s message doesn’t really say anything other than 500 error occurred.

If I copy paste the URL that I’m requesting in IE, I do get some details since I have friendly errors disable and IIS configured to send the real error text to the user.

“Technical Information (for support personnel)

Error Type:
ADODB.Recordset (0x800A0CC1)
Item cannot be found in the collection corresponding to the requested name or ordinal.
“

I’ve done a QuickWatch on the Exception and visited all of the properties, but not one contained this data.

Is there a way to get this information on the WebException?

Thanks.

Answer 1

Is there a way to get this information on the WebException?

Yes, you can read the response body:

try
{
    ...
}
catch (WebException ex)
{
    using (var stream = ex.Response.GetResponseStream())
    using (var reader = new StreamReader(stream))
    {
        string text = reader.ReadToEnd();
        // text will contain the response from the server
    }
}