Powershell using gzip for downloading by WebClient and Downloadstring()

Question

Is it possible to make a downloadstring() and using gzip-compression, if the server is accepting this?

$wc = New-Object System.Net.WebClient
$wc.Encoding = [System.Text.Encoding]::UTF8
$wc.Headers.Add("User-Agent: Other")

$qc = $wc.Downloadstring($url)

Does anyone know the correct Headers.Add or what do we have to add?

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2019251/powershell-character-problem — 030, Aug 05 '14 at 21:50
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5470474/powershell-httpwebrequest-get-method-cookiecontainer-problem — 030, Aug 05 '14 at 21:51
If we add $wc.Headers.Add("Accept-Encoding: gzip,deflate") we will get lots of Timeout - Errors. — Florian, Aug 05 '14 at 22:32

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 06 '14 at 13:15

2

Try this:

$url = "http://www.somewebsite.com/"
$wc = New-Object System.Net.WebClient
$wc.Headers.Add([System.Net.HttpRequestHeader]::AcceptEncoding, "gzip")
$wc.Headers.Add("User-Agent: Other")
$qc = $wc.Downloadstring($url)

Alternatively you can try and use DownloadFile method to see if this yields an expected result:

$wc.DownloadFile($url, "c:\temp\dump.txt" )

If there are errors then update your question to include them.

answered Aug 06 '14 at 13:15

Raf

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This works perfekctly and downloads the Content as an gzip - String (or file with DownloadFile() ). Do you also know the way to decompress the $qc - variable as an normal "string"? – Florian Aug 06 '14 at 14:09
Most likely you will have to use .Net GzipStream class but it's best if you post it as a separate question. – Raf Aug 06 '14 at 14:20

Powershell using gzip for downloading by WebClient and Downloadstring()

1 Answers1