Question

It’s common knowledge that using System.Diagnostics.Process.Start is the way to launch a url from a C# applicaiton:

System.Diagnostics.Process.Start(‘http://www.mywebsite.com‘);

However, if this url is invalid the application seems to have no way of knowing that the call failed or why. Is there a better way to launch a web browser? If not, what is my best option for url validation?

Answer 1

Try an approach as below.

try {     var url = new Uri('http://www.example.com/');      Process.Start(url.AbsoluteUri); } catch (UriFormatException) {     // URL is not parsable } 

This does not ensure that the resource exist, but it does ensure the URL is wellformed. You might also want to check if the scheme is matching http or https.