[02/03] web app to display tiff to pdf

[Christopher_Arm]

Iam working on a application in asp.net to display tiff images however I realized there is no direct way to do this except thorugh conversion to another file standard like JPEG or PDF. So I came up with this and I get an invalid parameter error. Anyone know what could be the cause of this ? In this case from the below sample code I used tiff to jpeg format. If I figure this out if it is safe to assume that I shoukd be able to do the same for a tiff to pdf conversion.

Private Sub btnUpload_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnUpload.Click
        Dim originalimg, thumb As System.Drawing.Image
        
        Dim objConn As SqlConnection = New SqlConnection("server =dummy-SQL;database =x_blah;uid=x_blaise;password=SSSSS")
        objConn.Open()
        Dim ds As DataSet = New DataSet
        Dim dv As DataView
        Dim objCommand As SqlCommand
        Dim objDataAdapter As New SqlDataAdapter


        objDataAdapter.SelectCommand = New SqlCommand
        objDataAdapter.SelectCommand.Connection = objConn
        objDataAdapter.SelectCommand.CommandText = _
        "SELECT FirstName +''+''+ LastName as Name, SN,Suffix, cast(Floor(cast(Date_Orig as Float)) as Datetime)as Date, Code,record, count,App, Fil, file,page, fullpath from dbo.t_S where hex_Number =  '" & CStr(txtNo.Text) & "'"
        objDataAdapter.Fill(ds, "dbo.x_blah")
        dv = New DataView(ds.Tables("dbo.x_blah"))


        'dataset filled now populating corresponding text fields'

        txtLastName.Text = ds.Tables(0).Rows(0)("Name").ToString()
        txtSN.Text = ds.Tables(0).Rows(0)("SN").ToString()
        txtOrigin.Text = RTrim(ds.Tables(0).Rows(0)("Date").ToString())
        txtApp.Text = ds.Tables(0).Rows(0)("App").ToString()
        txtPageNum.Text = ds.Tables(0).Rows(0)("page").ToString()
        txtPath.Text = ds.Tables(0).Rows(0)("fullpath").ToString()


' now getting ready to view the image in the recordset taken from fullpath '


        Dim strURL As String = Replace(txtPath.Text, "c:\BloodBank\", "\\nxs-appX\gelatin$\")
        'Dim img As Image = Image.FromFile(strURL)
        Image1.ImageUrl = strURL
        Dim YourImageTifFile As String = Image1.ImageUrl
        Dim bmp As Bitmap = New Bitmap(YourImageTifFile)
        Response.ContentType = "image/jpeg"
        bmp.Save(Response.OutputStream, System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Jpeg)
        bmp.Dispose()

[Christopher_Arm]

I 've updated the last portion and now it gives me an error of invalid parameter around the line of code that defines the Bitmap.

Here:

Dim YourImageTifFile As String
        YourImageTifFile = Image1.ImageUrl
        Dim bmp As New System.Drawing.Bitmap(YourImageTifFile)
        Response.ContentType = "image/jpeg"
        bmp.Save(Response.OutputStream, System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Jpeg)
        bmp.Dispose()
        Return

[mendhak]

Look at the constructors for the Bitmap class.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/libr...ap.bitmap.aspx

You will need to pass one of the types it's expecting, I don't think you can pass it an image URL.

[mendhak]

The closest you can get to it is passing the disk path to the image.

[Christopher_Arm]

The closest you can get to it is passing the disk path to the image.

so...based on this train of thought I was thinking if I put a folder in my web application and downloaded the blob data which are url pointing the location of the files stored as varchar (that are tif files) into that folder by some sql query and then put the tif files in the folder could I then put the path of the folder holding the image files and get the current one that matches the individual recordset therefore everything is local to application and accessible immediately. Could that work ? Moving the urls pointing to the images in x folder and then referencign the path to that image folder in my web application ?

[mendhak]

If it's BLOB data in your database, you should be able to get the byte array and put that into a Stream. You can then pass the Stream to the constructor. This way you don't have to save the file to disk and 'waste resources'.

[Christopher_Arm]

If it's BLOB data in your database, you should be able to get the byte array and put that into a Stream. You can then pass the Stream to the constructor. This way you don't have to save the file to disk and 'waste resources'.

Are there any tips or examples on how that would be done..I know I saw something on the subject recently ?

[mendhak]

byte[] theByteArray = yourBlobDataFromDatabase;
MemoryStream ms= new MemoryStream(theByteArray);

[Christopher_Arm]

something like this then perhaps ?

    Dim theByteArray() As Byte = ds.Tables(0).Rows(0)("fullpath")
        Dim ms As MemoryStream = New MemoryStream(theByteArray)
        Dim strURL As String = Replace(txtPath.Text, "e:\blah\", "\\mblah\d$\")
        'Dim img As Image = Image.FromFile(strURL)
        Image1.ImageUrl = strURL
               Dim YourImageTifFile As String
        YourImageTifFile = Image1.ImageUrl
        Dim bmp As New System.Drawing.Bitmap(Server.MapPath(YourImageTifFile))
        Response.ContentType = "image/jpeg"
        bmp.Save(Response.OutputStream, System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Jpeg)
        bmp.Dispose()

[mendhak]

Well, no, because you're loading the stream but not passing it to the constructor.

Dim bmp As New System.Drawing.Bitmap(ms)

Just out of curiosity, is 'thefullpath' the name of the column in your table which has BLOB data in it?

[Christopher_Arm]

Well, no, because you're loading the stream but not passing it to the constructor.

Dim bmp As New System.Drawing.Bitmap(ms)

Just out of curiosity, is 'thefullpath' the name of the column in your table which has BLOB data in it?

yes and this has given me a string can be passed as a one dimensional byte error. fullpath on the database end is a VARCHAR.

so then something like this:

 Dim theByteArray As Byte = "fullpath"
        Dim ms As MemoryStream = New MemoryStream(theByteArray)
        Dim bmp As New System.Drawing.Bitmap(ms)
Response.ContentType = "image/jpeg"
        bmp.Save(Response.OutputStream, System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Jpeg)
        bmp.Dispose()
        Return

ok that's giving me this error:Input string was not in a correct format.
btw the rest of the code above the snippet looks like this:

 txtPath.Text = ds.Tables(0).Rows(0)("fullpath").ToString()

   

        Dim strURL As String = Replace(txtPath.Text, "e:\bl\", "\\blah\b$\")
        Dim imageBytes() As Byte = Nothing
       
        Image1.ImageUrl = strURL
        Dim theByteArray As Byte = "fullpath"
        Dim ms As MemoryStream = New MemoryStream(theByteArray)
        Dim bmp As New System.Drawing.Bitmap(ms)

[mendhak]

Let's step back for a moment here. Do you or don't you have BLOB data in your database? Posts #5, 6 and 7 give me the impression that you have the file stored inside the database. So I was trying to help you by mentioning how you'd use a byte array in a Bitmap constructor. But now you're telling me that you have a path to the file which is already on disk instead. Which one is it?

[Christopher_Arm]

Let's step back for a moment here. Do you or don't you have BLOB data in your database? Posts #5, 6 and 7 give me the impression that you have the file stored inside the database. So I was trying to help you by mentioning how you'd use a byte array in a Bitmap constructor. But now you're telling me that you have a path to the file which is already on disk instead. Which one is it?

I have both quite frankly the url that points to the image is stored in a SQL database. However it also the images are also existing on a disk path as is evident with the replace code above.

I would prefer to use the disk path method even though it might waste resources.

[mendhak]

So we're back to square 1.

Since this

ds.Tables(0).Rows(0)("fullpath").ToString()

contains the full path to the image, just pass that to the Bitmap constructor.

[Christopher_Arm]

So we're back to square 1.

Since this

ds.Tables(0).Rows(0)("fullpath").ToString()

contains the full path to the image, just pass that to the Bitmap constructor.

        Dim bmp As New System.Drawing.Bitmap(ds.Tables(0).Rows(0)("fullpath").ToString())

Response.ContentType = "image/jpeg"
        bmp.Save(Response.OutputStream, System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Jpeg)
        bmp.Dispose()

ok. I feel like I am missing something after defining the bmp constructor. And it is throwing an invalid parameter error.

[mendhak]

Does

ds.Tables(0).Rows(0)("fullpath").ToString()

evaluate (debug it to see) to a complete path on your machine?

Like

C:\something\blah\image.jpg

?

[Christopher_Arm]

Does

ds.Tables(0).Rows(0)("fullpath").ToString()

evaluate (debug it to see) to a complete path on your machine?

Like

C:\something\blah\image.jpg

?

I 'll have to see what happens by doing that today. However a serious glitch I am seeing is the breakpoints are not firing in debug mode in VS2003. And that I can't explain.

ok I get a specified cast is not valid error upon hitting this line

Dim bmp As System.Drawing.Bitmap() = (ds.Tables(0).Rows(0)("fullpath"))

[Christopher_Arm]

I recently tried this to no avail with the same error returned:
Specified cast is not valid.

 Dim BytesArr() As Byte = DirectCast(ds.Tables(0).Rows(0)("fullpath"), Byte())
      
        Dim stream As New MemoryStream(BytesArr, True)
        stream.Write(BytesArr, 0, BytesArr.Length)
        Dim bmp As System.Drawing.Bitmap = New System.Drawing.Bitmap(stream)
        bmp.Save(Server.MapPath("ImagesFiles\pic.jpeg"))

        stream.Close()
        Me.Image1.ImageUrl = Server.MapPath("images\pic.jpeg")

[riteshjain1982]

try this (Make sure ds.Tables(0).Rows(0)("fullpath") has valid byte data in it,if u want check it out with northwinds category table first)

   
       
 Dim Image() As Byte = ctype(ds.Tables(0).Rows(0)("fullpath"), Byte())       
 Dim fs As New FileStream(Server.MapPath("images\pic.jpeg"), FileMode.CreateNew)
        Dim bw As New BinaryWriter(fs)
        bw.Write(Image)
        bw.Close()
        Image1.ImageUrl = "images\pic.jpeg"

Hope this will help u.

[Christopher_Arm]

damn. he is right.... no wonder I had an invalid cast error thrown there isn't byte data in the SQL database. Instead fullpath is represented as a VARCHAR datatype. The urls stored in fullpath( a column in the database) pointing to the locations the images are stored are all varchar. How do I get around this mess ?

[riteshjain1982]

if you are saving file path of the image than you should copy the original image to you "images\" and rest will be same........isn't it?

[Christopher_Arm]

if you are saving file path of the image than you should copy the original image to you "images\" and rest will be same........isn't it?

I am going to have to find a way to populate a folder I will add to my application to basically have the urls that are pointing to the image locations placed in the application folder and then once there the code will have to grab the current url that matches the recordset from the db and then show the image that is being pointed to by the URL by streaming this through a byte array and then the image control itself.

[riteshjain1982]

I am going to have to find a way to populate a folder I will add to my application to basically have the urls that are pointing to the image locations placed in the application folder and then once there the code will have to grab the current url that matches the recordset from the db and then show the image that is being pointed to by the URL by streaming this through a byte array and then the image control itself.

if you gona a store image in your application folder and it's path in your DB than whats need to reconvert in into stream of byte and back to image for image control ..

may me you should store the images as ID.extension in your image folder so later on will be more easy to retrive it back from DB to Image control

[Christopher_Arm]

if you gona a store image in your application folder and it's path in your DB than whats need to reconvert in into stream of byte and back to image for image control ..

may me you should store the images as ID.extension in your image folder so later on will be more easy to retrive it back from DB to Image control

Fair enough. I only realized afterwards that didn't make much sense to go back the database if everything I needed was stored at a given file location in my application. However the last part that you mentioned sounds ok although if you look earlier in this thread Mendhak mentions this might be wasteful in terms of resources handled by my application.

[riteshjain1982]

hmm well buddy didnt knew that but if i not understood wrong your req. is "you have some image files related to particular record and u want that to be shown in image control".....in this case according to me first of all you should not stored files in DB (blob)directly,secondly if image file is coming from user than renames and stored under one particular folder with renaming them as i said above,so there wont be any probelm.

[Christopher_Arm]

hmm well buddy didnt knew that but if i not understood wrong your req. is "you have some image files related to particular record and u want that to be shown in image control".....in this case according to me first of all you should not stored files in DB (blob)directly,secondly if image file is coming from user than renames and stored under one particular folder with renaming them as i said above,so there wont be any probelm.

My primary concern step by step.or rather taking things one step at a time is a) converting a varchar which is what "fullpath" is coming in as into this statement here from my DB into this dataset that I am attempting to store in this bytearray here...

Dim BytesArr() As Byte = DirectCast(ds.Tables(0).Rows(0)("fullpath"), Byte())

causing my error of specific cast invalid in the first place. Because it doesn't like the casting of string into byte directly I am afraid. I first have to find a way around this somehow. Then I can move forward.

[riteshjain1982]

My primary concern step by step.or rather taking things one step at a time is a) converting a varchar which is what "fullpath" is coming in as into this statement here from my DB into this dataset that I am attempting to store in this bytearray here...

Dim BytesArr() As Byte = DirectCast(ds.Tables(0).Rows(0)("fullpath"), Byte())

causing my error of specific cast invalid in the first place. Because it doesn't like the casting of string into byte directly I am afraid. I first have to find a way around this somehow. Then I can move forward.

solution depend upon the way you want to save file
1>If you want to save file in BLOB format than first change the code which saves your data into DB,there convert the image into byte using...

 Dim fs As New IO.FileStream(strFilePathName, _
           IO.FileMode.Open)
            Dim br As New IO.BinaryReader(fs)
            Dim abyt() as byte
            abyt = br.ReadBytes(CInt(fs.Length)) 
            br.Close()

Save abyt value in you "fullPath" column and it will resolve u r problem
2>If you save only image Path in "fullPath" coulmn than solution i told in previous post will help u.

[Christopher_Arm]

ok fullpath has to be converted to a byte so I used this:

 Dim strURL As String = Replace(txtPath.Text, "e:\blah\", "\\blah\dblah$\")
        Dim bRet(strURL.Length - 1) As Byte
        For i As Integer = 0 To strURL.Length - 1
            bRet(i) = Asc(strURL.Substring(i, 1))
        Next
Dim ms As MemoryStream = New MemoryStream(bRet)
Dim bmp As New System.Drawing.Bitmap(ms)
        bmp.Save(Response.OutputStream, System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Jpeg)
        bmp.Dispose()

of course this gives me invalid parameter error..but I feel closer to the solution.

[riteshjain1982]

ok fullpath has to be converted to a byte

you wont achived anything by saving PATH as byte,u need to convert and save File at that path into Array of byte.

[Christopher_Arm]

you wont achived anything by saving PATH as byte,u need to convert and save File at that path into Array of byte.

ok are you saying to change as Byte to as File because if so I am getting an integer can not be converted to system.IO.File appearing now.
right about here an this point in the code***

  Dim bRet(Image1.ImageUrl.Length - 1) As File
        For i As Integer = 0 To Image1.ImageUrl.Length - 1
            
***bRet(i) = Asc(Image1.ImageUrl.Substring(i, 1))***
        Next
        Dim ms As MemoryStream = New MemoryStream(bRet)
        Dim bmp As New System.Drawing.Bitmap(ms)
        bmp.Save(Response.OutputStream, System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Jpeg)
        bmp.Dispose()

[riteshjain1982]

Hopefully one the them will work out for you...

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/databa...nDataBase.aspx
http://www.odetocode.com/Articles/163.aspx

[mendhak]

I 'll have to see what happens by doing that today. However a serious glitch I am seeing is the breakpoints are not firing in debug mode in VS2003. And that I can't explain.

ok I get a specified cast is not valid error upon hitting this line

Dim bmp As System.Drawing.Bitmap() = (ds.Tables(0).Rows(0)("fullpath"))

If your breakpoints don't work, go to your temporary asp.net files folder and delete everything in there.

C:\windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\Temporary ASP.NET Files

Also, turn off the Indexing Service on your machine.

Start > Run > services.msc

[mendhak]

damn. he is right.... no wonder I had an invalid cast error thrown there isn't byte data in the SQL database. Instead fullpath is represented as a VARCHAR datatype. The urls stored in fullpath( a column in the database) pointing to the locations the images are stored are all varchar. How do I get around this mess ?

That's what I said in post #14. It's a path to an image. It's not the byte data of an image. You don't need the stream anymore.

[mendhak]

ok are you saying to change as Byte to as File because if so I am getting an integer can not be converted to system.IO.File appearing now.
right about here an this point in the code***

  Dim bRet(Image1.ImageUrl.Length - 1) As File
        For i As Integer = 0 To Image1.ImageUrl.Length - 1
            
***bRet(i) = Asc(Image1.ImageUrl.Substring(i, 1))***
        Next
        Dim ms As MemoryStream = New MemoryStream(bRet)
        Dim bmp As New System.Drawing.Bitmap(ms)
        bmp.Save(Response.OutputStream, System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Jpeg)
        bmp.Dispose()

OK, let me repeat myself, this time I'll try to be clearer.

You have a fullpath value in your database. The fullpath value is a string or varchar (same thing). You mentioned that you don't have the actual byte data in your database. The fullpath is the location of the actual image that you want to work with. Therefore, there is no binary data involved here. Get rid of your memorystream code.

One of the constructor arguments that Bitmap takes is a path to an image. A path to an image. That means your fullpath value. So all you need at this point is to pass fullpath to your Bitmap constructor.

Dim bmp As New System.Drawing.Bitmap(ds.Tables(0).Rows(0)("fullpath").ToString())

Do whatever you need to to find out what the value of

ds.Tables(0).Rows(0)("fullpath").ToString()

is.

Response.Write it out to the page if you have to. You will also need to ensure that an image actually exists at the location that fullpath is pointing to. If there is no image there, then you need to rethink how (and why) you're storing the value of fullpath the way that you are.

[Christopher_Arm]

Good lord. I still haven't solved this one yet. txtPath.text where is set equal to ds.Tables(0).Rows(0)("fullpath").ToString() is equal to the c:\blah\blah.tif file.
Now what ? I had seen demonstrated that the url does indeed point to an iamge.

[mendhak]

And does the c:\blah\blah.tif file exist?

[Christopher_Arm]

ok this ties in..how do I take textbox data and place that specific data into that app folder. The data of course is the url location. That way I will grab the location from the folder and place it in the image control and it should work Mendhak.

[Christopher_Arm]

And does the c:\blah\blah.tif file exist?

Yes. the problem is that I don't have access permissions to the folder in question to grab the urls from there that point to the image. The folder exists on a network share I am denied. So a new strategy is required, instead I have my dataset which has the records of all the data I am looking for placed into textboxes right ? Including fullpath which is the URL pointing to x image. Ok. Then I need to store the URL's into a application folder and then grab them locally from there map them to the image control. Once that is done they should appear without any problems.

[mendhak]

ok this ties in..how do I take textbox data and place that specific data into that app folder. The data of course is the url location. That way I will grab the location from the folder and place it in the image control and it should work Mendhak.

So you mean something like this?

MyImage.ImageUrl = TextBox1.Text

?


I may be misunderstanding, but answer this

What exactly is going to be in the textbox? Will it be a full URL like http://www.example.com/abc.tiff or is it going to be a file path like c:\sony\entertainment.tiff?

If it's a filename, you'll need to use System.Io namespace to perform a file.copy of the file to the folder you want. If it's an actual URL to a website that's not yours, then you'll need to do an HttpWebRequest to dynamically download that file to the folder you want.

[mendhak]

Yes. the problem is that I don't have access permissions to the folder in question to grab the urls from there that point to the image. The folder exists on a network share I am denied. So a new strategy is required, instead I have my dataset which has the records of all the data I am looking for placed into textboxes right ? Including fullpath which is the URL pointing to x image. Ok. Then I need to store the URL's into a application folder and then grab them locally from there map them to the image control. Once that is done they should appear without any problems.

I am not sure how you're mapping it to a full URL but in that case, yes, use an HttpWebRequest to download the file to a folder of your choice so that you can get the binary data out of it and give it to your Bitmap object.