Downloading a list of files from ftp to local folder using c#?

Question

I am looking to download all the files in ftp to my local folder.All the files should be deleted in ftp once downloaded to local drive.

From the below code

1. I can download only a file from ftp where I am not expecting

2. I need to place all the files in a folder but not in the name of local file name.

My code:

using (WebClient ftpClient = new WebClient())
{
   ftpClient.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential("ftpusername", "ftp pass");
   ftpClient.DownloadFile("ftp://ftpdetails.com/dec.docx",@"D:\\Mainfolder\test.docx");
}

From the above code, i can download a file and place it in the name of file only..Where I have so many files to download from ftp and place it in a local folder..Any suggestions very much thankful.

Solution 1

Here's an example of using the FTPWebResponse to get a list of file names from a directory:

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

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://ftp.funet.fi/pub/standards/RFC/");
            request.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.ListDirectoryDetails;

            // This example assumes the FTP site uses anonymous logon.
            request.Credentials = new NetworkCredential("anonymous", "[email protected]");

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

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

            while (!reader.EndOfStream)
            {
                String filename =  reader.ReadLine();
                Console.WriteLine(filename);
                //you now have the file name, you can use it to download this specific file


            }

            Console.WriteLine("Directory List Complete, status {0}", response.StatusDescription);

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

You can then use this list to download each file. Note that if you have a lot of files to download, you may want to look into asyncronous downloading to speed things up - but I would get this working first before you attempt to implement any async stuff.

Solution 2

I don't think WebClient is a valid FTP client. Use standard classes FtpWebRequest and FtpWebResponse instead.

Otherwise there are a few free C# ftp clients out there that will do the job.