How do I read text directly from a URL using VB.net? - vb.net

Question

I'm making a Windows Phone 8 app. I have the latitude and longitude of the target location. I need to get the Two Letter ISO country code of target location.
I'm using the following code to make it happen.
'Dim address As String = puri
'Dim client As WebClient = New WebClient()
'Dim reader As StreamReader = New StreamReader(address)
'code = reader.ReadToEnd
Dim inStream As StreamReader
Dim wr As WebRequest
Dim webresponse As WebResponse
wr = WebRequest.Create(puri)
webresponse = wr.GetResponse()
inStream = New StreamReader(webresponse.GetResponseStream())
code = inStream.ReadToEnd()
where puri(in the commented code) is the address of the webservice in string format.
When trying the commented code, the error I'm getting is that string cannot be converted to system.uri format. (address)
When trying the uncommented code, I get an error which says, getresponse is not a member of class system.net.webrequest()
I guess with the updates to .NET the code changed, but I couldn't find anything current on the topic.
URI = http://api.geonames.org/countryCode?lat=17.60890&lng=76.98966&username=demo

Answer 1

I think you should use WebClient Class instead of a WebRequest. It is simpler and faster. Here is a simple example:
Dim WebCL As New WebClient
Dim DownLoadedText As String = String.Empty
Try
DownLoadedText = WebCL.DownloadString("Your Url")
' Do something
Catch ex As Exception
Throw New Exception("Oops!! ERROR has occured, something is wrong with your address")
End Try