Creating a file... [Resolved]

I'd like to take a bitmap and a text file, and turn them into one file. How can I compile them as such and then be able to read them afterwards?

The easiest way I've found to combine all kind of different information in a file is to use a PropertyBag. Of course only your application (or any that knows exactly how you've made it) will be able to read it.

This example takes a picture loaded into a PictureBox, named Picture1, and a text shown in a TextBox, named Text1, and save it to a supplied file name.

VB Code:

Public Sub SaveFile(ByVal sFileName As String)
    Dim bArr() As Byte
    Dim hFile As Integer
    Dim pb As PropertyBag
 
    Set pb = New PropertyBag
    'Save the things in the property bag
    pb.WriteProperty "Pic", Picture1.Picture, Nothing
    pb.WriteProperty "Txt", Text1.Text, ""
    'get the content
    bArr = pb.Contents
    'open the file and save
    hFile = FreeFile
    Open sFileName For Binary Access Write As #hFile
    Put #hFile, , bArr
    Close #hFile
End Sub

You can then use the following code to read the file.

VB Code:

Public Sub ReadFile(ByVal sFileName As String)
    Dim hFile As Integer
    Dim bArr() As Byte
    Dim pb As PropertyBag
 
    hFile = FreeFile
    Open sFileName For Binary Access Read As #hFile
    ReDim bArr(LOF(hFile) - 1)
    Get #hFile, , bArr
    Close #hFile
    Set pb = New PropertyBag
    pb.Contents = bArr
    Picture1.Picture = pb.ReadProperty("Pic", Nothing)
    Text1.Text = pb.ReadProperty("Txt", "")
End Sub

Of course you should add error trapping in the code above.

Looks great, I'll try it out as soon as I can.

Thanks, works perfectly.