C# – Getting the Redirected URL from the Original URL

.netc++

I have a table in my database which contains the URLs of some websites. I have to open those URLs and verify some links on those pages. The problem is that some URLs get redirected to other URLs. My logic is failing for such URLs.

Is there some way through which I can pass my original URL string and get the redirected URL back?

Example: I am trying with this URL:
http://individual.troweprice.com/public/Retail/xStaticFiles/FormsAndLiterature/CollegeSavings/trp529Disclosure.pdf

It gets redirected to this one:
http://individual.troweprice.com/staticFiles/Retail/Shared/PDFs/trp529Disclosure.pdf

I tried to use following code:

HttpWebRequest req = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(Uris);
req.Proxy = proxy;
req.Method = "HEAD";
req.AllowAutoRedirect = false;

HttpWebResponse myResp = (HttpWebResponse)req.GetResponse();
if (myResp.StatusCode == HttpStatusCode.Redirect)
{
  MessageBox.Show("redirected to:" + myResp.GetResponseHeader("Location"));
}

When I execute the code above it gives me HttpStatusCodeOk. I am surprised why it is not considering it a redirection. If I open the link in Internet Explorer then it will redirect to another URL and open the PDF file.

Can someone help me understand why it is not working properly for the example URL?

By the way, I checked with Hotmail's URL (http://www.hotmail.com) and it correctly returns the redirected URL.

Thanks,

Best Solution

This function will return the final destination of a link -- even if there are multiple redirects. It doesn't account for JavaScript-based redirects or META redirects. Notice that the previous solution didn't deal with Absolute & Relative URLs, since the LOCATION header could return something like "/newhome" you need to combine with the URL that served that response to identify the full URL destination.

    public static string GetFinalRedirect(string url)
    {
        if(string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(url))
            return url;

        int maxRedirCount = 8;  // prevent infinite loops
        string newUrl = url;
        do
        {
            HttpWebRequest req = null;
            HttpWebResponse resp = null;
            try
            {
                req = (HttpWebRequest) HttpWebRequest.Create(url);
                req.Method = "HEAD";
                req.AllowAutoRedirect = false;
                resp = (HttpWebResponse)req.GetResponse();
                switch (resp.StatusCode)
                {
                    case HttpStatusCode.OK:
                        return newUrl;
                    case HttpStatusCode.Redirect:
                    case HttpStatusCode.MovedPermanently:
                    case HttpStatusCode.RedirectKeepVerb:
                    case HttpStatusCode.RedirectMethod:
                        newUrl = resp.Headers["Location"];
                        if (newUrl == null)
                            return url;

                        if (newUrl.IndexOf("://", System.StringComparison.Ordinal) == -1)
                        {
                            // Doesn't have a URL Schema, meaning it's a relative or absolute URL
                            Uri u = new Uri(new Uri(url), newUrl);
                            newUrl = u.ToString();
                        }
                        break;
                    default:
                        return newUrl;
                }
                url = newUrl;
            }
            catch (WebException)
            {
                // Return the last known good URL
                return newUrl;
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                return null;
            }
            finally
            {
                if (resp != null)
                    resp.Close();
            }
        } while (maxRedirCount-- > 0);

        return newUrl;
    }
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