Getting JSON instead of XML file when calling a service with WebClient

Question

I have looked for answers everywhere, but nothing has answered my question thus far. For the application that I'm making, I need to obtain the latest XML artifact from Bukkit.org. Now, if I save the XML artifact manually (through my browser) and then load it into my program, it works properly, giving me the expected formatted XML file.

However, if I use WebClient to access the file, I run into issues, as the file Webclient downloads is not even in XML format. I have put a test case below.

static void manualLoad()
    {
        //local copy
        XDocument doc = XDocument.Load("artifacts.xml");

        var lol = doc.Descendants("build_number");

        foreach (XElement e in lol)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(e.Value); //correct output
        }
    }

    static void onlineLoad()
    {

        WebClient client = new WebClient();

        //save to local project folder
        client.DownloadFile(new Uri("http://dl.bukkit.org/api/1.0/downloads/projects/bukkit/artifacts/")
            , "C:\\...\\XMLTest\\XMLTest\\bin\\Debug\\lol.xml");

        XDocument doc = XDocument.Load("lol.xml"); //error thrown!


    }

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        manualLoad(); //works!
        onlineLoad(); //throws XMLexception: Data at root level is invalid.
        Console.ReadKey();

    }

The XML artifact I am trying to access is here:Bukkit.org XML Artifact

Answer 1

I haven't tried your code, but it seems you have to set the accept header to application/xml - looks like it defaults to json.

Edit: You can set the header on the WebClient:

client.Headers.Add("accept", "application/xml");