Get files from web directory

Question

I wanted to just get random Images from http://random.cat/, so I wanted to index them using Directory.GetFiles or something like that, but this doesn't work. So what would be the best way to get the functionality of Directory.GetFiles but for http://random.cat/i (this is where the Images are stored, I think)?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

You do not have access to the images database but they provide an api to retrieve one image at a time.

Create a basic model:

public class RandomImage
{
    public string file { get; set; }
}

Then you can use WebClient to do that:

public string RandomImage()
{
    string result = null;

    var apiurl = "http://random.cat";

    HttpClient client = new HttpClient();
    client.BaseAddress = new Uri(apiurl);
    client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Clear();
    client.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue("application/json"));

    HttpResponseMessage ResponseMessage = client.GetAsync(apiurl + "/meow").Result; // The .Result part will make this method not async
    if (ResponseMessage.IsSuccessStatusCode)
    {
        var ResponseData = ResponseMessage.Content.ReadAsStringAsync().Result;
        var MyRandomImage = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<RandomImage>(ResponseData);

        result = MyRandomImage.file; // This is the url for the file
    }

    // Return
    return result;
}

Call the function from your methods:

var MyImage = RandomImage();