Python to .net C# conversion

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C#

.NET

WebForms

Python

.NET4

I have a small function written in python. What it does is accept 2 parameters, and uses them to login to a site.

suppose the URL of the site is: http://www.abc.com/abcd/login.do
there are 3 parameters: 1) action = doLoginSubmit
(this is a fixed static parameter. does not change)
2) userId = abcd
3) password = 1234
(these 2 are supplied by user)

here is the python code:

def get_url(url, data=None, timeout=60, opener=None):
  '''get_url accepts a URL string and return the server response code, response headers, and contents of the file'''
  '''ref: http://pythonfilter.com/blog/changing-or-spoofing-your-user-agent-python.html'''

  req_headers = {
    'User-Agent': 'Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; U; ru; rv:5.0.1.6) Gecko/20110501 Firefox/5.0.1 Firefox/5.0.1'
  }
  
request = urllib2.Request(url, headers=req_headers)

  if not opener:
    jar = cookielib.FileCookieJar("cookies")
    opener = urllib2.build_opener(urllib2.HTTPCookieProcessor(jar))
  response = opener.open(request, data)
  code = response.code
  headers = response.headers
  html = response.read()
  return code, headers, html, opener


def site_login():
  login_data = urllib.urlencode({'userId' : abcd, 'password' : 1234, 'action' : 'doLoginSubmit'})

  code, headers, html, cur_opener = get_url('http://www.abc.com/abcd/login.do', data=login_data, opener=cur_opener)

  if debug: print html

i am trying to make a C# equivalent.
here is my code:

Dictionary<string, string> parameters = new Dictionary<string, string> 
{ 
	{ "action", "doLoginSubmit"},
	{ "userId", uRow["USERNAME"].ToString() },
	{ "password", uRow["PASSWORD"].ToString() }
};
//WebClient client = new WebClient();
//client.Headers.Set("UserAgent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; U; ru; rv:5.0.1.6) Gecko/20110501 Firefox/5.0.1 Firefox/5.0.1");

//Stream dataStream = client.OpenWrite(string.Format("{0}?", cRow["LINK"].ToString()), "POST");

//string result = client.UploadString(string.Format("{0}?",cRow["LINK"].ToString()), "POST" , UrlEncode(parameters));

WebRequest request = WebRequest.Create(string.Format("{0}?{1}", cRow["LINK"].ToString(), UrlEncode(parameters)));

request.Method = "POST";

((HttpWebRequest)request).UserAgent = "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; U; ru; rv:5.0.1.6) Gecko/20110501 Firefox/5.0.1 Firefox/5.0.1";

postDataBytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(UrlEncode(parameters));

request.ContentType = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";

request.ContentLength = postDataBytes.Length;

Stream dataStream = request.GetRequestStream();
							dataStream.Write(postDataBytes, 0, postDataBytes.Length);

dataStream.Close();

WebResponse response = request.GetResponse();

dataStream = response.GetResponseStream();

StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(dataStream);

string responseFromServer = System.Web.HttpUtility.UrlDecode(reader.ReadToEnd());

//webBrowser.Url = new Uri(string.Format("{0}?{1}", cRow["LINK"].ToString(), 
UrlEncode(parameters)));

the line

string.Format("{0}?{1}", cRow["LINK"].ToString(),
UrlEncode(parameters))

gives me a 'COMPLETE' url sting:
http://www.abc.com/abcd/login.do?action=doLoginSubmit&userId=abcd&password=1234

now copying this URL string into Firefox address bar and press enter and i can successfully login to the site. Firefox displays the page after successful login and i have further confirmed that the login is in fact successful.

So, i know at least this much portion of my code is right.

What i want to do next is to 'run' this URL without a browser or webcontrol or UI, or somehow successfully submit the credentials to the site and perform a successful login without having to click additional buttons. I mean, the login process itself will have no visual indicators. Only, after the this function completes, if successful, popup a message-box saying 'success' else a message 'failed'.

As can be seen from the commented out lines,
i have tried webclient-openwrite, uploadstring, uploaddata
also webrequest/webresponse to the site url with the parameters passed properly. i have also tried a direct webcontrol navigate to the 'COMPLETE' URL string but it does not login successfully.

the line

string responseFromServer = System.Web.HttpUtility.UrlDecode(reader.ReadToEnd());

tells me if login is successful or not, and i have confirmed that it is not successful.
Please help me out in getting a successful login.
i use C# .Net4.


EDIT:

For some reason, doing a webbrowser.Navigate to the COMPLETE URL 'twice' seems to cause a successful login!