c# - Upload file and download file from FTP

Question

I am trying to make a program that uploads/downloads .exe file to a FTP

I tried using FtpWebRequest, but I only succeed to upload and download .txt files.

Then i found here a solution for downloading using the WebClient:

WebClient request = new WebClient();
request.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("username", "password");
byte[] fileData =  request.DownloadData("ftp://myFTP.net/");

FileStream file = File.Create(destinatie);
file.Write(fileData, 0, fileData.Length);

file.Close();

This solution works. But I seen that WebClient has a method DownloadFile which did not worked. I think because it doesn't work on FTP only on HTTP. Is my assumption true? If not how can I get it to work?

And is there any other solution for uploading/downloading a .exe file to ftp using FtpWebRequest?

Answer 1

Both WebClient.UploadFile and WebClient.DownloadFile work correctly for FTP as well as binary files.

---

Upload

WebClient client = new WebClient();
client.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("username", "password");
client.UploadFile(
    "ftp://ftp.example.com/remote/path/file.zip", @"C:localpathfile.zip");

If you need a greater control, that WebClient does not offer (like TLS/SSL encryption, ascii/text transfer mode, transfer resuming, etc), use FtpWebRequest. Easy way is to just copy a FileStream to FTP stream using Stream.CopyTo:

FtpWebRequest request =
    (FtpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("ftp://ftp.example.com/remote/path/file.zip");
request.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("username", "password");
request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.UploadFile;  

using (Stream fileStream = File.OpenRead(@"C:localpathfile.zip"))
using (Stream ftpStream = request.GetRequestStream())
{
    fileStream.CopyTo(ftpStream);
}

If you need to monitor an upload progress, you have to copy the contents by chunks yourself:

FtpWebRequest request =
    (FtpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("ftp://ftp.example.com/remote/path/file.zip");
request.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("username", "password");
request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.UploadFile;  

using (Stream fileStream = File.OpenRead(@"C:localpathfile.zip"))
using (Stream ftpStream = request.GetRequestStream())
{
    byte[] buffer = new byte[10240];
    int read;
    while ((read = fileStream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) > 0)
    {
        ftpStream.Write(buffer, 0, read);
        Console.WriteLine("Uploaded {0} bytes", fileStream.Position);
    } 
}

For GUI progress (WinForms ProgressBar), see:
How can we show progress bar for upload with FtpWebRequest

If you want to upload all files from a folder, see
Recursive upload to FTP server in C#.

---

Download

WebClient client = new WebClient();
client.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("username", "password");
client.DownloadFile(
    "ftp://ftp.example.com/remote/path/file.zip", @"C:localpathfile.zip");

If you need a greater control, that WebClient does not offer (like TLS/SSL encryption, ascii/text transfer mode, resuming transfers, etc), use FtpWebRequest. Easy way is to just copy an FTP response stream to FileStream using Stream.CopyTo:

FtpWebRequest request =
    (FtpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("ftp://ftp.example.com/remote/path/file.zip");
request.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("username", "password");
request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.DownloadFile;

using (Stream ftpStream = request.GetResponse().GetResponseStream())
using (Stream fileStream = File.Create(@"C:localpathfile.zip"))
{
    ftpStream.CopyTo(fileStream);
}

If you need to monitor a download progress, you have to copy the contents by chunks yourself:

FtpWebRequest request =
    (FtpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create("ftp://ftp.example.com/remote/path/file.zip");
request.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("username", "password");
request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.DownloadFile;

using (Stream ftpStream = request.GetResponse().GetResponseStream())
using (Stream fileStream = File.Create(@"C:localpathfile.zip"))
{
    byte[] buffer = new byte[10240];
    int read;
    while ((read = ftpStream.Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) > 0)
    {
        fileStream.Write(buffer, 0, read);
        Console.WriteLine("Downloaded {0} bytes", fileStream.Position);
    }
}

For GUI progress (WinForms ProgressBar), see:
FtpWebRequest FTP download with ProgressBar

If you want to download all files from a remote folder, see
C# Download all files and subdirectories through FTP.