Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Developer Compendium

Using WebClient to get data from the Web

As was stated in the introduction to this chapter, we are going to build a really simple RSS reader for Windows Phone 7. We are going to keep everything really simple. What that means is that we are going to focus on the pieces of code that actually do something.

This is what we are going to do:

• Create our base project
• Add a text block to display the WebClient results
• Create a WebClient
• Use the WebClient to request the contents of our SharePoint home page
• Display the raw HTML that is returned in the text block on the page

First, a quick word about WebClient. WebClient isn't the most robust method of making requests over a network, but it's really simple and works for simple cases, such as the one we are working ...