Dealing with bad HTTP headers

[Colin Crossman]

So, I'm trying to write a web spider for some data gathering from a
public database webserver. Anyway, in response to a POST, the webserver
returns "200 Script Results Follow" instead of "201 CREATED". While
both IE and Firefox ignore the odd header, this response kills my
HttpWebRequest with a WebException - "System.Net.Web Exception: The
server committed a protocol violation. Section=Respons eStatusLine".

Does anyone know of a workaround for this?

Thanks,
Colin

PS Code:
Code:

using System;
using System.Collecti ons.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Text.Reg ularExpressions ;
using System.Net;
using System.IO;
using System.Web;

namespace ConsoleApplicat ion1
{
public class InsertTest {
public static void Main() {

loHttp.Method = "POST";
byte[] lbPostBuffer = System.Text.

Encoding.GetEnc oding(1252).Get Bytes(lcPostDat a);
loHttp.ContentL ength = lbPostBuffer.Le ngth;

Stream loPostData = loHttp.GetReque stStream();
loPostData.Writ e(lbPostBuffer, 0, lbPostBuffer.Le ngth);
loPostData.Clos e();
try
{
HttpWebResponse loWebResponse =
(HttpWebRespons e)loHttp.GetRes ponse();
Encoding enc = System.Text.Enc oding.GetEncodi ng(1252);

StreamReader loResponseStrea m =
new StreamReader(lo WebResponse.Get ResponseStream( ), enc);

string lcHtml = loResponseStrea m.ReadToEnd();

loWebResponse.C lose();
loResponseStrea m.Close();
}
catch (WebException J)
{
Console.WriteLi ne("Protocol violation!\n {0}", J.ToString());
}

string adj22 = Console.ReadLin e();

}
}

}

[Colin Crossman]

Re: Dealing with bad HTTP headers

Whoops, sent wrong code in last message:


using System;
using System.Collecti ons.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Text.Reg ularExpressions ;
using System.Net;
using System.IO;
using System.Web;

namespace ConsoleApplicat ion1
{
public class InsertTest {
public static void Main() {
string lcUrl = "http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser";
HttpWebRequest loHttp =
(HttpWebRequest )WebRequest.Cre ate(lcUrl);

// *** Send any POST data
string lcPostData =
"Sect1=" + System.Web.Http Utility.UrlEnco de("PTO1") +
"&Sect2=" + System.Web.Http Utility.UrlEnco de("HITOFF") +
"&d=" + System.Web.Http Utility.UrlEnco de("PALL") +
"&p=" + System.Web.Http Utility.UrlEnco de("1") +
"&u=" +
System.Web.Http Utility.UrlEnco de("/netahtml/srchnum.htm") +
"&r=" + System.Web.Http Utility.UrlEnco de("1") +
"&f=" + System.Web.Http Utility.UrlEnco de("G") +
"&l=" + System.Web.Http Utility.UrlEnco de("50") +
"&s1=" + System.Web.Http Utility.UrlEnco de("6223224.WKU .") +
"&OS=" + System.Web.Http Utility.UrlEnco de("PN/6223224") +
"&RS=" + System.Web.Http Utility.UrlEnco de("PN/6223224");


loHttp.Method = "POST";
byte[] lbPostBuffer = System.Text.

Encoding.GetEnc oding(1252).Get Bytes(lcPostDat a);
loHttp.ContentL ength = lbPostBuffer.Le ngth;

Stream loPostData = loHttp.GetReque stStream();
loPostData.Writ e(lbPostBuffer, 0, lbPostBuffer.Le ngth);
loPostData.Clos e();
try
{
HttpWebResponse loWebResponse =
(HttpWebRespons e)loHttp.GetRes ponse();
Encoding enc = System.Text.Enc oding.GetEncodi ng(1252);

StreamReader loResponseStrea m =
new StreamReader(lo WebResponse.Get ResponseStream( ), enc);

string lcHtml = loResponseStrea m.ReadToEnd();

loWebResponse.C lose();
loResponseStrea m.Close();
}
catch (WebException J)
{
Console.WriteLi ne("Protocol violation!\n {0}", J.ToString());

}
string adj22 = Console.ReadLin e();

}
}
}

[Joerg Jooss]

Re: Dealing with bad HTTP headers

Colin Crossman wrote:
[color=blue]
> So, I'm trying to write a web spider for some data gathering from a
> public database webserver. Anyway, in response to a POST, the
> webserver returns "200 Script Results Follow" instead of "201
> CREATED".[/color]

A 201 should only be returned if a new resource was created on the
server-side. If that is the case but you get a 200 response instead,
it's a server-side error.

Do note that "200 Script Results Follow" is a perfectly legal HTTP
status line. The HTTP spec defines status codes, but only *recommends*
reason phrases. Accordingly, "Script Results Follow" is as good as "OK"
or "Aye aye, Sir".

[color=blue]
> While both IE and Firefox ignore the odd header, this
> response kills my HttpWebRequest with a WebException -
> "System.Net.Web Exception: The server committed a protocol violation.
> Section=Respons eStatusLine".
>
> Does anyone know of a workaround for this?[/color]

What .NET version are you using? I've tested this briefly in both 1.1
and 2.0 Beta 2, and both work with arbitrary reason phrases:

Cheers,
--

http://www.joergjooss.de

mailto:news-reply@joergjoos s.de