How to Download a Web Page With VBScript

VBScript uses the HttpWebRequest control to download websites and interface with the website's pages. Download the page and store it as a file, or display the downloaded code to a Web page. The HttpWebRequest control opens the Web page in the server's memory, and the information downloaded is the raw HTML displayed as if the code was displayed in a regular browser.

Instructions

1. Click the Windows "Start" button and select "All Programs." Click "Microsoft .NET," then click the "Visual Studio" shortcut. Open your VBScript project to open the Web forms.

2. Create the HttpWebRequest variable. You must instantiate a class to use it in your VBScript. The following code instantiates the class:

   Dim web As HttpWebRequest

3. Retrieve the website's code and set the response to a variable. You request the server's information, but you must then save the server response to a "response" variable. The following code shows you how to retrieve the data and store the response in a "response" variable:

   web WebRequest.Create("http://mydomain.com/page.aspx")

   Dim response As HttpWebResponse = CType(web.GetResponse(), HttpWebResponse)

   The code above retrieves the HTML code from "mydomain.com/page.aspx." Replace this URL with your own address. The response is saved to the variable labeled "response."

4. Store the response or print it to the screen. The following code stores the response to a stream, which is used to print the output to the reader's screen:

   Dim read As New StreamReader(response)

   Dim html As String = read.ReadToEnd()

   Console.WriteLine(html)

References

• Microsoft: WebRequest Class