How do I submit web requests at runtime in C#.NET?

This utility class will make a web request programmatically and return the response as a string. I use it for calling ReST services that simply return custom XML which is then parsed using my serialization techniques mentioned in a previous post.

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Net;
using System.Runtime.Serialization;
using System.Text;
 
public class WebRequestResult
{
    private HttpStatusCode outcome;
 
    public HttpStatusCode Outcome
    {
        get { return outcome; }
        set { outcome = value; }
    }
 
    private string response;
 
    public string Response
    {
        get { return response; }
        set { response = value; }
    }
}
 
public enum HTTPMethod
{
    DELETE,
    GET,
    POST,
    PUT
};
 
public static class WebRequestUtility
{
    private const string DEFAULT_CONTENT_TYPE = "text/plain";
    private const string XML_CONTENT_TYPE = "text/xml";
 
    #region No authentication
    public static WebRequestResult Submit( string uri, HTTPMethod httpMethod, WebHeaderCollection headers )
    {
        return Submit( uri, null, null, httpMethod, DEFAULT_CONTENT_TYPE, headers, null );
    }
 
    public static WebRequestResult Submit( string uri, HTTPMethod httpMethod, string data )
    {
        return Submit( uri, null, null, httpMethod, DEFAULT_CONTENT_TYPE, null, data );
    }
 
    public static WebRequestResult Submit( string uri, HTTPMethod httpMethod, WebHeaderCollection headers, string data )
    {
        return Submit( uri, null, null, httpMethod, DEFAULT_CONTENT_TYPE, headers, data );
    }
 
    public static WebRequestResult Submit( string uri, HTTPMethod httpMethod, string contentType, WebHeaderCollection headers )
    {
        return Submit( uri, null, null, httpMethod, contentType, headers, null );
    }
 
    public static WebRequestResult Submit( string uri, HTTPMethod httpMethod, string contentType, string data )
    {
        return Submit( uri, null, null, httpMethod, contentType, null, data );
    }
 
    public static WebRequestResult Submit( string uri, HTTPMethod httpMethod, string contentType, WebHeaderCollection headers, string data )
    {
        return Submit( uri, null, null, httpMethod, contentType, headers, data );
    }
    #endregion
 
    #region Username/password authentication
    public static WebRequestResult Submit( string uri, string username, string password, HTTPMethod httpMethod )
    {
        return Submit( uri, username, password, httpMethod, DEFAULT_CONTENT_TYPE, null, null );
    }
 
    public static WebRequestResult Submit( string uri, string username, string password, HTTPMethod httpMethod, WebHeaderCollection headers )
    {
        return Submit( uri, username, password, httpMethod, DEFAULT_CONTENT_TYPE, headers, null );
    }
 
    public static WebRequestResult Submit( string uri, string username, string password, HTTPMethod httpMethod, string data )
    {
        return Submit( uri, username, password, httpMethod, DEFAULT_CONTENT_TYPE, null, data );
    }
 
    public static WebRequestResult Submit( string uri, string username, string password, HTTPMethod httpMethod, string contentType, WebHeaderCollection headers )
    {
        return Submit( uri, username, password, httpMethod, contentType, headers, null );
    }
 
    public static WebRequestResult Submit( string uri, string username, string password, HTTPMethod httpMethod, string contentType, string data )
    {
        return Submit( uri, username, password, httpMethod, contentType, null, data );
    }
    #endregion
 
    public static WebRequestResult Submit( string uri, string username, string password, HTTPMethod httpMethod, string contentType, WebHeaderCollection headers, string data )
    {
        WebRequestResult result = new WebRequestResult();
 
        StringBuilder response = new StringBuilder();
 
        HttpWebRequest httpWebRequest = null;
        HttpWebResponse httpWebResponse = null;
 
        try
        {
            httpWebRequest = ( HttpWebRequest )WebRequest.Create( uri );
 
            if ( !string.IsNullOrEmpty( username ) && !string.IsNullOrEmpty( password ) )
            {
                CredentialCache credentialCache = new CredentialCache();
                credentialCache.Add( new Uri( uri ), "Basic", new NetworkCredential( username, password ) );
 
                httpWebRequest.Credentials = credentialCache;
            }
 
            if ( headers != null )
            {
                foreach ( string key in headers.Keys )
                {
                    httpWebRequest.Headers.Add( key, headers[key] );
                }
            }
 
            httpWebRequest.Method = httpMethod.ToString();
            httpWebRequest.ContentType = contentType;
 
            if ( !string.IsNullOrEmpty( data ) )
            {
                using ( StreamWriter streamWriter = new StreamWriter( httpWebRequest.GetRequestStream() ) )
                {
                    streamWriter.WriteLine( data );
                }
            }
            else
            {
                httpWebRequest.ContentLength = 0;
            }
 
            httpWebResponse = (HttpWebResponse)httpWebRequest.GetResponse();
 
            if ( httpWebResponse != null )
            {
                result.Outcome = httpWebResponse.StatusCode;
 
                using ( StreamReader streamReader = new StreamReader( httpWebResponse.GetResponseStream() ) )
                {
                    while ( streamReader.Peek() != -1 )
                    {
                        response.Append( streamReader.ReadLine() );
                    }
                }
            }
        }
        catch ( WebException exception )
        {
            httpWebResponse = exception.Response as HttpWebResponse;
 
            if ( httpWebResponse != null )
            {
                result.Outcome = httpWebResponse.StatusCode;
            }
            else
            {
                result.Outcome = HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError;
            }
 
            response.Append( exception.Message );
        }
        catch ( Exception exception )
        {
            result.Outcome = HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError;
 
            response.Append( exception.Message );
        }
        finally
        {
            try
            {
                if ( httpWebRequest != null )
                {
                    httpWebRequest.GetRequestStream().Close();
                }
            }
            catch { }
 
            try
            {
                if ( httpWebResponse != null )
                {
                    httpWebResponse.GetResponseStream().Close();
                }
            }
            catch { }
        }
 
        result.Response = response.ToString();
 
        return result;
    }
 
    #region No authentication
    public static WebRequestResult SubmitXML( string uri, HTTPMethod httpMethod, WebHeaderCollection headers, string xml )
    {
        return Submit( uri, httpMethod, XML_CONTENT_TYPE, headers, xml );
    }
    #endregion
 
    #region Username/password authentication
    public static WebRequestResult SubmitXML( string uri, string username, string password, HTTPMethod httpMethod, string xml )
    {
        return Submit( uri, username, password, httpMethod, XML_CONTENT_TYPE, xml );
    }
 
    public static WebRequestResult SubmitXML( string uri, string username, string password, HTTPMethod httpMethod, WebHeaderCollection headers, string xml )
    {
        return Submit( uri, username, password, httpMethod, XML_CONTENT_TYPE, headers, xml );
    }
    #endregion
}