XmlReader Error in reading RSS Feed

Question

I am trying to read an RSS feed from http://backend.deviantart.com/rss.xml?q=gallery:duster132/23316533&type=deviation with the following code:

        //Different RSS Links
        string deviant_rsslink = @"http://backend.deviantart.com/rss.xml?q=gallery:duster132/23316533&type=deviation";
        string blogspot_rsslink = @"http://fightpunch.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default";

        //Reading the links
        XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(deviant_rsslink); //LINE WHERE ERROR OCCURS
        SyndicationFeed feed = SyndicationFeed.Load(reader);
        reader.Close();
        foreach (SyndicationItem item in feed.Items)
        {
            String subject = item.Title.Text;
            Console.WriteLine("Subjext is: " + subject + "\n");
        }

...and I get the error:

"The underlying connection was closed: The connection was closed unexpectedly."

At first I thought deviantart might be blocking my IP so I tried this from different computers with differing IPs however the error persists, so it seems that is not the issue. To make things more difficult to track, the code works with no error at http://fightpunch.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default.

What should I try to fix this?

L.B · Accepted Answer · 2014-06-27 20:46:12Z

2

You site requires User-Agent header be set

Below code should work..

string rss = null;
using (var wc = new Webclient())
{
    wc.Headers["User-Agent"] = "SO/1.0";
    rss = wc.DownloadString(deviant_rsslink);
}
XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(new StringReader(rss));

answered Jun 27, 2014 at 20:46

L.B

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4 Comments

Chris L Over a year ago

Wow... that works!!! Can you explain why this code works? I looked up user-agent, but not sure I fully understand this. I've been stumped by this for weeks... thank you so so much!!!

L.B Over a year ago

@ChrisL I don't know how I can explain it (with my limited english). Just remove the wc.Headers line and try. it will not work... How I found it? maybe experience.

Chris L Over a year ago

How would this be different, if I tried to load the RSS xml with the following: XDocument rsslink = XDocument.Load(weblink);

L.B Over a year ago

@ChrisL Most probably XDocument.Load doesn't post User-Agent header. It is not a must, but some sites may require it. (w3.org/Protocols/HTTP/HTRQ_Headers.html#user-agent)

serializer · Accepted Answer · 2016-08-02 20:38:33Z

1

In my case SSL was disabled and TLS was only allowed. I changed to using a HTTPWebRequest instead. Please note that I am using .NET 4.0 and do not have TLS1.2 as option so I hardcoded the value (3072) for that:

Dim doc As New XmlDocument()
Dim req As HttpWebRequest = DirectCast(WebRequest.Create(FeedAddress), HttpWebRequest)
ServicePointManager.SecurityProtocol = DirectCast(3072, SecurityProtocolType)
req.Method = "GET"
Dim myHttpWebResponse As HttpWebResponse = DirectCast(req.GetResponse(), HttpWebResponse)

Dim response As WebResponse = req.GetResponse
Dim streamResponse As Stream = response.GetResponseStream
doc.Load(streamResponse)

answered Aug 2, 2016 at 20:38

serializer

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