Download a file from a Claims auth based SharePoint 2010 site programmatically

Question

I have a console application to download a file from a SharePoint site. The sharepoint site uses claims based authentication.

This code throws a 403 Forbidden exception. The specified Network credential has full access to the site, and is able to download the same file from a browser.

WebClient webClient = new WebClient();
webClient.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(username,Password,domain);
byte[] fileData = webClient.DownloadData(urlOfAFile); 
FileStream file = File.Create(localPath);
file.Write(fileData, 0, fileData.Length);

Any idea how to fix this?

Solution

Maybe a bit late, but adding the right request header before making the request solves the problem:

webClient.Headers.Add("X-FORMS_BASED_AUTH_ACCEPTED", "f");

Comments

[Mikael Svenson]

Is the site set to require ssl (check directoy security in IIS)

[turnip_cyberveggie]

Yes... The site is configured to use HTTPS

[Admin]

Any luck with this problem? I am running into a similar issue.

[turnip_cyberveggie]

Hi, Thanks for answering. After adding your code snipped, I am getting a 401 Exception. Earlier, I was getting a 403 exception. Am I missing anything?

[Mel Gerats]

Are you trying to log in with Windows authentication or Forms authentication?

[nixjojo]

Hi @ashwnacharya Have you solved this problem? I also have the same problem, if you know how to solve it, can you post your answer here? Thanks!

[Vijay]

This solution worked for me! I tried the other solution provided in the same forum which did not work for me.

[EthR]

I had to add the user agent header also and then it worked. _SPWebClient.Headers["User-Agent"] = "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/4.0; SLCC2; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0; MDDC)";