How to HTTP Post to Google Docs generated form

Question

0.00/5 (No votes)

See more:

What is the difference in programmatically filling in an online form versus posting to a Google-documents-generated form such as a Google Spreadsheet Live Form?

I tried the following with no success:

WebRequest req = WebRequest.Create(URI);
req.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";
req.Method = "POST";
string postData = "entry.0.single=ABCD&entry.1.single=EFGH&submit=click";
byte[] byteArray = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes (postData);
req.ContentLength = byteArray.Length;
Stream os = req.GetRequestStream ();
os.Write (byteArray, 0, byteArray.Length); 
os.Close ();

and the response just gets me back to the Google form.
:confused:

Posted 9-Nov-10 16:15pm

pilotdad

Add a Solution

2 solutions

Add a Solution

Add your solution here

Treat my content as plain text, not as HTML

Preview 0

…

Existing Members

Sign in to your account

...or Join us

Download, Vote, Comment, Publish.

Your Email
Password
Forgot your password?

Your Email
This email is in use. Do you need your password?
Optional Password

I have read and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Please subscribe me to the CodeProject newsletters

When answering a question please:

Read the question carefully.
Understand that English isn't everyone's first language so be lenient of bad spelling and grammar.
If a question is poorly phrased then either ask for clarification, ignore it, or edit the question and fix the problem. Insults are not welcome.
Don't tell someone to read the manual. Chances are they have and don't get it. Provide an answer or move on to the next question.

Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid.

This content, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)

a137946852 · Answer 1 · 2010-12-02T14:12:00

I had alot of trouble with this, but after looking at the google code and sniffing the HTTP Post with Wireshark i was able to obtain this- a good starting point (but I was getting 405 errors on some of my more complicated test forms.. not sure why)

Imports System.Web
Imports System.Net
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Text


Public Class Form1
    Dim request As HttpWebRequest
    Dim response As HttpWebResponse = Nothing
    Dim reader As StreamReader
    Dim address As Uri
    Dim appId As String
    Dim context As String
    Dim query As String
    Dim data As StringBuilder
    Dim byteData() As Byte
    Dim postStream As Stream = Nothing
    ''Dim myHttpUtility As HttpUtility

    Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        post()
    End Sub


    Sub post()

        address = New Uri("http://googleform")

        ' Create the web request  
        request = DirectCast(WebRequest.Create(address), HttpWebRequest)

        ' Set type to POST  
        request.Method = "POST"
        request.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"

        ' Create the data we want to send  
        appId = "ss-form"
        

        data = New StringBuilder()

        data.Append("entry.0.single=" + HttpUtility.UrlEncode(BrandBox.Text))
        data.Append("&amp;entry.2.single=" + HttpUtility.UrlEncode(ModelBox.Text))
        data.Append("&amp;entry.3.single=" + HttpUtility.UrlEncode(ModelStringBox.Text))

        ' Create a byte array of the data we want to send  
        byteData = UTF8Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(data.ToString())

        ' Set the content length in the request headers  
        request.ContentLength = byteData.Length

        ' Write data  
        Try
            postStream = request.GetRequestStream()
            postStream.Write(byteData, 0, byteData.Length)
        Finally
            If Not postStream Is Nothing Then postStream.Close()
        End Try

        Try
            ' Get response  
            response = DirectCast(request.GetResponse(), HttpWebResponse)

            ' Get the response stream into a reader  
            reader = New StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream())

            ' Console application output  
            MessageBox.Show(reader.ReadToEnd())
        Finally
            If Not response Is Nothing Then response.Close()
        End Try




    End Sub



End Class

-dwww.chromableedstudios.com[^]

pilotdad · Answer 2 · 2010-12-05T22:04:00

Solution 2

Hi
Thanks so much for looking into this. I'll give this a go when I get home.

I notice that the data string didn't include 'submit'? In googling for answers, I found some suggestions to include pageNumber backupCache and submit in the data string.

I'll try this out this evening.

Cheers

Posted 5-Dec-10 22:04pm

pilotdad

Comments

George Cane 11-Oct-17 7:24am

Hi,

This looked like the answer to my problem. However, the code is fine until the line:

data.Append("entry.0.single=" + HttpUtility.UrlEncode(BrandBox.Text))

At which point it objects to 'HttpUtility' as not being declared.
It's declaration is 'commented out'... Twice !: (''Dim myHttpUtility As HttpUtility)
Removing the comments results in a 'Type HttpUtility is not defined' error.

'BrandBox' is also 'not declared' but I expect once the HttpUtility issue is fixed the answer to that will become apparent.

Poppa.