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Get FTP file details based on datetime in C#

Question: I want to get file Details from FTP server based on some specific datetime without using any 3rd party.
Problem : My FTP server contains 1000s of files so getting all files and after that filtering it takes time.
Is there any Quicker way to do this ?
string ftpPath = "ftp://directory/";
// Some expression to match against the files...do they have a consistent
// name? This example would find XML files that had 'some_string' in the file
Regex matchExpression = new Regex("^test.+\.xml$", RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
// DateFilter
DateTime cutOff = DateTime.Now.AddDays(-10);
List<ftplineresult> results = FTPHelper.GetFilesListSortedByDate(ftpPath, matchExpression, cutOff);
public static List<FTPLineResult> GetFilesListSortedByDate(string ftpPath, Regex nameRegex, DateTime cutoff)
{
List<FTPLineResult> output = new List<FTPLineResult>();
FtpWebRequest request = FtpWebRequest.Create(ftpPath) as FtpWebRequest;
ConfigureProxy(request);
request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.ListDirectoryDetails;
FtpWebResponse response = request.GetResponse() as FtpWebResponse;
StreamReader directoryReader = new StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream(), System.Text.Encoding.ASCII);
var parser = new FTPLineParser();
while (!directoryReader.EndOfStream)
{
var result = parser.Parse(directoryReader.ReadLine());
if (!result.IsDirectory && result.DateTime > cutoff && nameRegex.IsMatch(result.Name))
{
output.Add(result);
}
}
// need to ensure the files are sorted in ascending date order
output.Sort(
new Comparison<FTPLineResult>(
delegate(FTPLineResult res1, FTPLineResult res2)
{
return res1.DateTime.CompareTo(res2.DateTime);
}
)
);
return output;
}

Problem : My FTP server contains 1000s of files so geting all files and after that filtering it takes time.
Is there any Quicker way to do this ?
No.
The only standard FTP API, is the LIST command and its companions. All these will give you list of all files in a folder. There's no FTP API to give you files filtered by a timestamp.
Some servers support non-standard file masks in the LIST command.
So they will allow you to return only the *.xml files.
See How to get list of files based on pattern matching using FTP?
Similar questions:
Download files from FTP if they are created within the last hour
C# - Download files from FTP which have higher last-modified date

I have got an alternative solution to do my functionality using FluentFTP.
Explanation:
I am downloading the files from FTP (Read permission reqd.) with same folder structure.
So everytime the job/service runs I can check into the physical path same file(Full Path) exists or not If not exists then it can be consider as a new file. And Ii can do some action for the same and download as well.
Its just an alternative solution.
Code Changes:
private static void GetFiles()
{
using (FtpClient conn = new FtpClient())
{
string ftpPath = "ftp://myftp/";
string downloadFileName = #"C:\temp\FTPTest\";
downloadFileName += "\\";
conn.Host = ftpPath;
//conn.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("ftptest", "ftptest");
conn.Connect();
//Get all directories
foreach (FtpListItem item in conn.GetListing(conn.GetWorkingDirectory(),
FtpListOption.Modify | FtpListOption.Recursive))
{
// if this is a file
if (item.Type == FtpFileSystemObjectType.File)
{
string localFilePath = downloadFileName + item.FullName;
//Only newly created files will be downloaded.
if (!File.Exists(localFilePath))
{
conn.DownloadFile(localFilePath, item.FullName);
//Do any action here.
Console.WriteLine(item.FullName);
}
}
}
}
}

C# Download File from a network drive

I have a file that is located at a network drive. The user access is already created to have full access to the path. But it seems that when I ran the following code to get the file, the browser just does not respond.
FileInfo file = new FileInfo(GetDocumentUploadFolder(ID) + fileName);
// Checking if file exists
if (file.Exists)
{
// Clear the content of the response
this.Page.Response.ClearContent();
// Clear the header of the response
this.Page.Response.ClearHeaders();
// Set the ContentType
this.Page.Response.ContentType = "application/pdf";
// Write the file into the response (TransmitFile is for ASP.NET 2.0. In ASP.NET 1.1 you have to use WriteFile instead)
this.Page.Response.WriteFile(file.FullName);
// End the response
this.Page.Response.End();
}
I tried using this.Page.Response.TransmitFile(file.FullName); and it also does not work. The page seems to stop functioning after this.Page.Response.End();
Any ideas?

No matter where file a stored. Your action must return a file as the result:
public FileResult GetBytes()
{
string path = Server.MapPath("~/Files/PDFIcon.pdf");
byte[] mas = System.IO.File.ReadAllBytes(path);
string file_type = "application/pdf";
string file_name = "PDFIcon.pdf";
return File(mas, file_type, file_name);
}
Server.MapPath(filePath string) - must have access to the file.

I am able to do a workaround by copying the files first from the network drive to local path and then do a TransmitFile from there:
FileInfo file = new FileInfo(GetDocumentUploadFolder(ID) + fileName);
string strFolder = Server.MapPath(LocalLocation);
string strDestination = Server.MapPath(LocalLocation + "\\" + fileName);
// Checking if file exists
if (file.Exists)
{
if (!Directory.Exists(strFolder))
Directory.CreateDirectory(strFolder);
// Delete contents in this folder
Common.DeleteFiles(strFolder, "*.*");
file.CopyTo(strDestination, true);
// Clear the content of the response
this.Page.Response.ClearContent();
// Clear the header of the response
this.Page.Response.ClearHeaders();
// Set the ContentType
this.Page.Response.ContentType = "application/pdf";
// Write the file into the response (TransmitFile is for ASP.NET 2.0. In ASP.NET 1.1 you have to use WriteFile instead)
this.Page.Response.TransmitFile(strDestination);
// End the response
this.Page.Response.End();
}

Saving File on Desktop by c#

I am using a web service that returns me some data. I am writing that data in a text file. my problem is that I am having a file already specified in the c# code, where I want to open a dialog box which ask user to save file in his desired location. Here I am posting code which I have used. Please help me in modifying my code. Actually after searching from internet, all are having different views and there is lot of changes in code required where as I do not want to change my code in extent. I am able to write the content in test file but how can I ask user to enter his desire location on computer?
StreamWriter file = new StreamWriter("D:\\test.txt");
HttpWebRequest webreq = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(yahooURL);
// Get the response from the Internet resource.
HttpWebResponse webresp = (HttpWebResponse)webreq.GetResponse();
// Read the body of the response from the server.
StreamReader strm =
new StreamReader(webresp.GetResponseStream(), Encoding.ASCII);
string content = "";
for (int i = 0; i < symbols.Length; i++)
{
// Loop through each line from the stream,
// building the return XML Document string
if (symbols[i].Trim() == "")
continue;
content = strm.ReadLine().Replace("\"", "");
string[] contents = content.ToString().Split(',');
foreach (string dataToWrite in contents)
{
file.WriteLine(dataToWrite);
}
}
file.Close();

Try this
using (WebClient Client = new WebClient ())
{
Client.DownloadFile("http://www.abc.com/file/song/a.mpeg", "a.mpeg");
}

C# FTP, how to check if a Path is a File or a Directory?

I have an array that contains some FTP pathes, like follows:
"ftp//ip/directory/directory1",
"ftp//ip/directory/directory2",
"ftp//ip/directory/file.txt",
"ftp//ip/directory/directory3",
"ftp//ip/directory/another_file.csv"
How can i find out if the path is a file or a directory?
Thanks in advance.

Use the LIST command, which you can refer to RFC959, to get the details about items under the specified path. Take FileZilla Server for example, the LIST command will return standard LINUX permission format which you can find here. The first letter indicates if the requested path is file or directory. Also a simple library written in C# can be found here

I had the same problem. I worked off of hughs answer. You need to make an FTPRequest like:
request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.ListDirectoryDetails;
grab it from streamreader and stick it in a string
StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(responseStream);
string directoryRaw = null;
try { while (reader.Peek() != -1) { directoryRaw += reader.ReadLine() + "|"; } }
catch (Exception ex) { Console.WriteLine(ex.ToString()); }
when you print this it is going to look like:
|-rw-r--r-- 1 user user 1699 Jun 1 2015
404.shtml
|drwxr-xr-x 2 user user 4096 Sep 8 19:39 cgi-bin
|drwxr-xr-x 2 user user 4096 Nov 3 10:52 css
These are seperated by | so that will be the delim for a splitstring
if it starts with a d and not a - then its a directory, else its a file.
these are all the same size before file name so make a new string for each of these strings starting at position 62 to end and that will be the file name.
Hope it helps

There's no direct way.
Indirectly you could assume that filenames that have no period "." are directories, but that is not going to always be true.
Best is to write the code that consumes these paths carefully so it e.g. treats the path as a directory, then if the FTP server reports an error, treat it as a file.

One way to do it is if we can assume that all files will end in an extension and all directories will not have an extension, we can use the System.IO.Path.GetExtension() method like this:
public bool IsDirectory(string directory)
{
if(directory == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException(); // or however you want to handle null values
}
// GetExtension(string) returns string.Empty when no extension found
return System.IO.Path.GetExtension(directory) == string.Empty;
}

You can use System.IO.Path.GetExtension(path)` as a way to check if your path has a file extension.
Given "ftp//ip/directory/directory1" or "ftp//ip/directory/directory2/", GetExtension will return a String.Empty to you.
This isn't foolproof, and it's possible though if there was a file without an extension that this would break down completely, or a directory with a period in it could cause issues.

I have found "hack" how to determine target type.
If you will use
request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.GetFileSize;
on a folder, it will result in Exception
Unhandled Exception: System.Net.WebException: The remote server
returned an erro r: (550) File unavailable (e.g., file not found, no
access).
But using it on file, it will naturally return its size.
I have create sample code for such method.
static bool IsFile(string ftpPath)
{
var request = (FtpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(ftpPath);
request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.GetFileSize;
request.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("foo", "bar");
try
{
using (var response = (FtpWebResponse)request.GetResponse())
using (var responseStream = response.GetResponseStream())
{
return true;
}
}
catch(WebException ex)
{
return false;
}
}
You might want to alter it, because this one will catch any FTP error.

I had the same problem so I used GetFileSize to check if it's a File or Directory
var isFile = FtpHelper.IsFile("ftpURL", "userName", "password");
using System;
using System.Net;
public static class FtpHelper
{
public static bool IsFile(Uri requestUri, NetworkCredential networkCredential)
{
return GetFtpFileSize(requestUri, networkCredential) != default(long); //It's a Directory if it has no size
}
public static FtpWebRequest GetFtpWebRequest(Uri requestUri, NetworkCredential networkCredential, string method = null)
{
var ftpWebRequest = (FtpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(requestUri); //Create FtpWebRequest with given Request Uri.
ftpWebRequest.Credentials = networkCredential; //Set the Credentials of current FtpWebRequest.
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(method))
ftpWebRequest.Method = method; //Set the Method of FtpWebRequest incase it has a value.
return ftpWebRequest; //Return the configured FtpWebRequest.
}
public static long GetFtpFileSize(Uri requestUri, NetworkCredential networkCredential)
{
//Create ftpWebRequest object with given options to get the File Size.
var ftpWebRequest = GetFtpWebRequest(requestUri, networkCredential, WebRequestMethods.Ftp.GetFileSize);
try { return ((FtpWebResponse)ftpWebRequest.GetResponse()).ContentLength; } //Incase of success it'll return the File Size.
catch (Exception) { return default(long); } //Incase of fail it'll return default value to check it later.
}
}

C# Path.GetTempPath returns "Could not find a part of the path" error

I am downloading a file from an ftp server and saving it to the directory defined in Path.GetTempPath(); however, I'm getting the following error: Could not find a part of the path.
I've confirmed that the path returned is correct: C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Temp.
SYSTEM, Administrators, and [username] all have full control over that directory. I thought the point of the temp directory was that it was open for anything/everyone to save to, but just in case, I gave NETWORK SERVICE Modify permissions as well. (I assume that's the username ASP.NET Dev server uses, but I'm not sure.)
I'm using VS 08 on Vista.
Here's my code:
FtpWebRequest downloadRequest = (FtpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(
ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["FTPServer"] + "//" + fileName);
downloadRequest.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(
ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["FTPUsername"],
ConfigurationManager.AppSettings["FTPPassword"]);
downloadRequest.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.DownloadFile;
FtpWebResponse downloadResponse =
(FtpWebResponse)downloadRequest.GetResponse();
try
{
Stream downloadStream = downloadResponse.GetResponseStream();
if (downloadStream != null)
{
logger.Info("File Download status: {0}",
downloadResponse.StatusDescription);
StreamReader downloadReader = new StreamReader(downloadStream);
try
{
if (downloadReader != null)
{
StreamWriter downloadWriter =
new StreamWriter(Path.GetTempPath());
downloadWriter.AutoFlush = true;
downloadWriter.Write(downloadReader.ReadToEnd());
}
}
finally
{
if (downloadReader != null)
{
downloadReader.Close();
}
}
}
}
finally
{
if (downloadResponse != null)
{
downloadResponse.Close();
}
}
I'd really appreciate any ideas about what I'm doing wrong here.
Thanks!

Looks to me like you need to add a file name to the end of the temp path. Try this:
StreamWriter downloadWriter =
new StreamWriter(Path.Combine(Path.GetTempPath(), fileName));

StreamWriter downloadWriter =
new StreamWriter(Path.GetTempPath());
You're trying to open the StreamWriter on a directory rather than on a file. If you want a temp filename, use Path.GetTempFileName() instead:
StreamWriter downloadWriter =
new StreamWriter(Path.GetTempFileName());
Either that or do what Skinniest Man said.