How can I read the pdf names in the file in the ftp folder in C#?

Question

I want to connect to the folder via ftp and get the file names in the folder as a list. I want to compare the names in this list with the names in my own database and see if there are different names. How can I get the file names in that folder as a list with my ftp connection and the folder information I want to connect.

How can I read and extract the names 1.pdf,A.pdf,c4.pdf ... etc in the Document folder in the ftp folder as a list.

For example: Document folder include : 1.pdf,A.pdf,c4.pdf

I want to : List ftpdocumentincludesname= List();

FTP is no longer supported natively by .NET So you might want to look for a nuget package that does this. — Emond, Feb 05 '22 at 20:06
true, this is the deprecated way https://gist.github.com/eternnoir/9777420 if you are using older dotnet versions — AliReza Sabouri, Feb 05 '22 at 20:09
Amusingly, the .net docs from MS that point out FTP is deprecated link to an so question asking for recommendations of a good free FTP library.. — Caius Jard, Feb 05 '22 at 20:13
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1371964/free-ftp-library — Caius Jard, Feb 05 '22 at 20:19

K J · Answer 1 · 2022-02-07T01:36:43.177

FTP is relatively old and few sites actually still really offer FTP listings most are switching to FTPoverHTTPS:// one example site which is still showing both is

FTP://ftp.gnu.org and it depends how long they may allow simple views such as Windows Explorer, many may only offer an HTML style interface.

The better ones will include a readme file listing, thus no need to make your own. but if you must you can copy&paste or "save as" site_blahblah.htm

If you need better there are dedicated FTP site browsers, that allow for easy access and listings.

you can for simple sites like above simply write a response file say pdf.txt

user Anonymous
literal pasv
ls *.pdf
bye

and run it via commandline ftp -i -s:pdf.txt -n ftp.gnu.org the response will be something like

Connected to ftp.gnu.org.
220 GNU FTP server ready.
ftp> user Anonymous
230 Login successful.
ftp> literal pasv
227 Entering Passive Mode (209,51,188,20,108,5).
ftp> ls *.pdf
200 PORT command successful. Consider using PASV.
150 Here comes the directory listing.

blahblah.pdf
blah.pdf
blahblahblah.pdf

226 Directory send OK.
ftp> bye
221 Goodbye.

If you want more details, so for example in place of ls *.pdf lets use real world dir *.gz and we get:-

ftp> dir *.gz
200 PORT command successful. Consider using PASV.
150 Here comes the directory listing.
-rw-rw-r--    1 0        3003       240409 Feb 06 21:01 find.txt.gz
-rw-rw-r--    1 0        3003       462613 Feb 06 21:01 ls-lrRt.txt.gz
-rw-rw-r--    1 0        3003       543098 Feb 06 21:01 tree.json.gz
226 Directory send OK.

For ad hoc listings its quicker to cut and paste the folder as above. However as pointed out you want to use C# so use the stock listing and work iteratively around that.

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Net;

namespace Examples.System.Net
{
    public class WebRequestGetExample
    {
        public static void Main ()
        {
            // Get the object used to communicate with the server.
            FtpWebRequest request = (FtpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("ftp://www.contoso.com/");
            request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.ListDirectoryDetails;

            // This example assumes the FTP site uses anonymous logon.
            request.Credentials = new NetworkCredential ("anonymous","janeDoe@contoso.com");

            FtpWebResponse response = (FtpWebResponse)request.GetResponse();

            Stream responseStream = response.GetResponseStream();
            StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(responseStream);
            Console.WriteLine(reader.ReadToEnd());

            Console.WriteLine($"Directory List Complete, status {response.StatusDescription}");

            reader.Close();
            response.Close();
        }
    }
}

How can I read the pdf names in the file in the ftp folder in C#?

1 Answers1