How can I determine if an URL is valid

[voyageur]

Is there an easy way to programmatically determine if a website URL actually points to a live page so that I can filter out non-existent pages so end users don't have to find out for themselves when they click on the hyperlink?

 

[chrissie1]

try to connect to it.

Christiaan Baes
Belgium

If you want to get an answer read this FAQ faq796-2540
There's no such thing as a winnable war - Sting

 

[ThatRickGuy]

Yeah, grab the source and look for a 404 error.

-Rick

----------------------

http://www.ringdev.com

 

[AnonGod]

I'm sure there are cleaner ways, but this works.
-Andrew

    Sub CheckExist()
        Dim uri As String
        Dim wc As New System.Net.WebClient
        uri = "[URL unfurl="true"]http://www.doesnotexist.com/doesnotexist.asp"[/URL]
        Try
            wc.DownloadData(uri) ' Try to download page
        Catch ex As Exception
            If Err.Number = 5 Then
                ' Page does not exist
                MsgBox("Page does not exist.")
            Else
                MsgBox(Err.Number & vbCrLf & Err.Description)
                Exit Sub
            End If
        End Try
        MsgBox("Page Exists")
    End Sub

[TAG]
... If you find my posts helpful, rate me up! ...
anongod@hotmail.com
'Drawing on my fine command of language, I said nothing.'

 

[voyageur]

Thanks for the code Andrew. It works great in normal VB.NET. I'll give it a try where I really need it...in a SQL Report Server RDL report.

 

[chiph]

in a SQL Report Server RDL report.

Uhhh, I'm not sure that's a good idea.

If the URI doesn't exist you'll be waiting for the DNS timeout (30 seconds or more), and I don't know what SQL Server will do with a report that is unresponsive for that length of time.

Chip H.


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