.NET: Simplest way to send POST with data and read response

Question

To my surprise, I can't do anything nearly as simple as this, from what I can tell, in the .NET BCL:

byte[] response = Http.Post
(
    url: "http://dork.com/service",
    contentType: "application/x-www-form-urlencoded",
    contentLength: 32,
    content: "home=Cosby&favorite+flavor=flies"
);

This hypothetical code above makes an HTTP POST, with data, and returns the response from a Post method on a static class Http.

Since we're left without something this easy, what's the next best solution?

How do I send an HTTP POST with data AND get the response's content?

Answer 1

   using (WebClient client = new WebClient())
   {

       byte[] response =
       client.UploadValues("http://dork.com/service", new NameValueCollection()
       {
           { "home", "Cosby" },
           { "favorite+flavor", "flies" }
       });

       string result = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetString(response);
   }

You will need these includes:

using System;
using System.Collections.Specialized;
using System.Net;

If you're insistent on using a static method/class:

public static class Http
{
    public static byte[] Post(string uri, NameValueCollection pairs)
    {
        byte[] response = null;
        using (WebClient client = new WebClient())
        {
            response = client.UploadValues(uri, pairs);
        }
        return response;
    }
}

Then simply:

var response = Http.Post("http://dork.com/service", new NameValueCollection() {
    { "home", "Cosby" },
    { "favorite+flavor", "flies" }
});