Get Shoutcast v1/v2 listeners number in VB.NET

Today i was trying to find a solution to grab listeners number from shoutcast servers, but i needed a something simple and to work with both versions of shoutcast. After a few tests i end up using the shoutcast generated XML file.

First, i made a class that will hold all members:

Class StreamServer
        Public ServerName As String
        Public ServerAdress As String
        Public ServerPassword As String
        Public StreamID As String = 0
        Public ListenersCount As Integer

        Public Sub New(ByVal sName As String, ByVal sAddress As String, ByVal sPassword As String, ByVal ServerStreamID As String)
            ServerName = sName
            ServerAdress = sAddress
            ServerPassword = sPassword
            StreamID = ServerStreamID
        End Sub

        Public Overrides Function ToString() As String
            Return ServerName & ": " & ListenersCount
        End Function

End Class

And the function that gets the needed data:

Private Function Get_XMLFile(ByVal ServerID As Integer) As Integer
        Dim wcMozilla As New WebClient
        Dim strResponse As String = Nothing

        Try
            ''Add a compatible header
            wcMozilla.Headers.Add("user-agent", "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.2; .NET CLR 1.0.3705;)")

            ''if we have a StreamID set, we have a shoutcast V2 server
            If MyServers.Item(ServerID).StreamID > 0 Then
                strResponse = wcMozilla.DownloadString(MyServers.Item(ServerID).ServerAdress & "/admin.cgi?pass=" & MyServers.Item(ServerID).ServerPassword & "&sid=" & MyServers.Item(ServerID).StreamID & "&mode=viewxml")
            Else
                strResponse = wcMozilla.DownloadString(MyServers.Item(ServerID).ServerAdress & "/admin.cgi?pass=" & MyServers.Item(ServerID).ServerPassword & "&mode=viewxml")
            End If

        Catch ex As WebException
            'MsgBox(ex.Message)
        Finally

        End Try

        If String.IsNullOrEmpty(strResponse) = False Then
            Try
                Dim ds As New DataSet
                ds.ReadXml(New StringReader(strResponse), XmlReadMode.Auto)
                MyServers.Item(ServerID).ListenersCount = CInt(ds.Tables(0).Rows(0).Item("CURRENTLISTENERS").ToString)
            Catch ex As Exception

            End Try
        Else
            MyServers.Item(ServerID).ListenersCount = 0
        End If

        Return MyServers.Item(ServerID).ListenersCount
End Function

I added a timer that calls the “Get_XMLFile” function every 15 seconds and counts the total listeners, which is displayed on a label.

This is the entire code:

Imports System.Xml
Imports System.Net
Imports System.Text.RegularExpressions
Imports System.IO

Public Class Form1

    Class StreamServer
        Public ServerName As String
        Public ServerAdress As String
        Public ServerPassword As String
        Public StreamID As String = 0
        Public ListenersCount As Integer

        Public Sub New(ByVal sName As String, ByVal sAddress As String, ByVal sPassword As String, ByVal ServerStreamID As String)
            ServerName = sName
            ServerAdress = sAddress
            ServerPassword = sPassword
            StreamID = ServerStreamID
        End Sub

        Public Overrides Function ToString() As String
            Return ServerName & ": " & ListenersCount
        End Function

    End Class

    Private MyServers As New List(Of StreamServer)
    Private ListenerCount As Integer = 0

    Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
        Dim newServer As New StreamServer("My First Server", "https://127.0.0.1:8000", "changeme", 0)
        MyServers.Add(newServer)

        newServer = New StreamServer("My Second V2 Server", "https://127.0.0.1:8050", "changeme", 1)
        MyServers.Add(newServer)
    End Sub

    Private Function Get_XMLFile(ByVal ServerID As Integer) As Integer
        Dim wcMozilla As New WebClient
        Dim strResponse As String = Nothing

        Try
            ''Add a compatible header
            wcMozilla.Headers.Add("user-agent", "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.2; .NET CLR 1.0.3705;)")

            ''if we have a StreamID set, we have a shoutcast V2 server
            If MyServers.Item(ServerID).StreamID > 0 Then
                strResponse = wcMozilla.DownloadString(MyServers.Item(ServerID).ServerAdress & "/admin.cgi?pass=" & MyServers.Item(ServerID).ServerPassword & "&sid=" & MyServers.Item(ServerID).StreamID & "&mode=viewxml")
            Else
                strResponse = wcMozilla.DownloadString(MyServers.Item(ServerID).ServerAdress & "/admin.cgi?pass=" & MyServers.Item(ServerID).ServerPassword & "&mode=viewxml")
            End If

        Catch ex As WebException
            'MsgBox(ex.Message)
        Finally

        End Try

        If String.IsNullOrEmpty(strResponse) = False Then
            Try
                Dim ds As New DataSet
                ds.ReadXml(New StringReader(strResponse), XmlReadMode.Auto)
                MyServers.Item(ServerID).ListenersCount = CInt(ds.Tables(0).Rows(0).Item("CURRENTLISTENERS").ToString)
            Catch ex As Exception

            End Try
        Else
            MyServers.Item(ServerID).ListenersCount = 0
        End If

        Return MyServers.Item(ServerID).ListenersCount
    End Function

    Private Sub Timer1_Tick(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Timer1.Tick

        ListenerCount = 0

        For i As Integer = 0 To MyServers.Count - 1
            ListenerCount += Get_XMLFile(i).ToString
        Next

        Me.lbStatus.Text = "Current Listeners: " & ListenerCount.ToString

    End Sub
End Class

The only drawnback of this approach is that you need to supply the admin password in order to reach the shoucast XML.