Upload a file to an FTP server from a string or stream

Question

I'm trying to create a file on an FTP server, but all I have is either a string or a stream of the data and the filename it should be created with. Is there a way to create the file on the server (I don't have permission to create local files) from a stream or string?

string location = "ftp://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:21/TestLocation/Test.csv";

WebRequest ftpRequest = WebRequest.Create(location);
ftpRequest.Method = WebRequestMethods.Ftp.UploadFile;
ftpRequest.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(userName, password);

string data = csv.getData();
MemoryStream stream = csv.getStream();

//Magic

using (var response = (FtpWebResponse)ftpRequest.GetResponse()) { }

Solution

Just copy your stream to the FTP request stream:

Stream requestStream = ftpRequest.GetRequestStream();
stream.CopyTo(requestStream);
requestStream.Close();

---

For a string (assuming the contents is a text):

byte[] bytes = Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(data);

using (Stream requestStream = request.GetRequestStream())
{
    requestStream.Write(bytes, 0, bytes.Length);
}

Or even better use the StreamWriter:

using (Stream requestStream = request.GetRequestStream())
using (StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(requestStream, Encoding.UTF8))
{
    writer.Write(data);
}

If the contents is a text, you should use the text mode:

request.UseBinary = false;

Comments

[Martin Prikryl]

That's not a generic solution. You convert the contents to UTF-8. So it can work with text files only. And you didn't state this limitation. Moreover, using a binary mode for text files does not seem right.