Use an IStream object to avoid disk access

Programs need to read and write data. Sometimes the data storage is only used temporarily. If the storage medium is a file, temporary files need to be deleted. Some Windows APIs allow reading and writing data to an object that implements IStream. IStream has methods that read and write to the underlying storage, which can be a file, memory, or even a named pipe: whatever the object chooses. However, IStream doesn’t inherit from IDispatch, so you can’t use Automation directly. Instead, I’ve created a simple COM wrapper that can read/write a stream, but uses the Library Construction Kit APIs to read and write Fox variables and fields.

Using memory for the stream instead of a disk file can be much faster, and releasing the stream can free the used memory.

The code below subclasses the GDIPlus wrapper foundation classes (which wraps the GDI+ Flat API) and adds a new method that calls GdipSaveImageToStream in the GDI+ Flat API which will write to a stream. It loads a jpg into GDIPlus, writes some text and a timestamp on it, then saves it to a stream. The stream is then written to a VFP blob field and displayed on a form.

CreateStreamOnHGlobal is used to create a stream which uses memory as the storage.

Download the COM server (save it somewhere on your machine and regsvr32 it) here.

Let me know if you do any performance comparisons between file and stream I/O, or if you have other ideas on how to use streams with VFP.

See also: Draw text or graphics directly onto a JPG file

Create thumbnails of all your digital photos in a single table

Use Named Pipes to communicate between processes or machines

CLEAR

SET SAFETY OFF

SET CLASSLIB TO HOME()+"ffc\_gdiplus"

cFile=LOCFILE("d:\kids.jpg","jpg","JPG file") && Some jpg file

DECLARE integer CreateStreamOnHGlobal IN ole32 integer hGlobal,integer fDeleteOnRelease, integer @ nSrm

nStm=0 && the stream is represented as an integer. It's actually the IStream pointer, which does not inherit from IDispatch

IF .f.

*some test code to create, write, then read a stream

          LOCAL ox as "VFPStream.Cstream"

          ox=CREATEOBJECT("VFPStream.Cstream")

          CreateStreamOnHGlobal(0,1,@nStm) && Create stream nStm

          nStm=INT(nStm)

          sFileContents=FILETOSTR(cFile) && A VFP Variable which has the file contents

          nLen=LEN(sFileContents)

          ?"Write",ox.WriteStream(nStm,"sFileContents",nLen) && Write the contents to the stream

          *ox.StreamSeek(nStm,0,0,0,0,0) && Seek to beginning of stream

          buf=0 && Create a VFP Variable

          ?"Read",ox.ReadStream(nStm,"buf",0) && Read the stream contents into var "buf". nBytesToRead=0 means all of it

          ?"Stream length=",ox.GetStreamLen(nStm) && we can get the length

          ?"BufLen=",LEN(buf)

          ox.ReleaseStream(nStm)

          RETURN

ENDIF

LOCAL oImage as gpimage OF HOME()+"ffc\_gdiplus",oThumb as gpimage

LOCAL oGraphics as gpGraphics

LOCAL orect as gprectangle

oImage=CREATEOBJECT("mygpimage",cFile) && create my subclass of gpimage, with some jpg

oGraphics=CREATEOBJECT("gpgraphics")

IF !oGraphics.CreateFromImage(oImage)

          THROW "CreateFromImage "+cFilename

ENDIF

*Now modify the JPG by writing some text on it

oGraphics.DrawStringA("Hi There From Stream!"+TRANSFORM(DATETIME()),;

          CREATEOBJECT("gpfont","Verdana",40,1,3),;

          CREATEOBJECT("gprectangle",0,0,1000,500),;

          CREATEOBJECT("gpstringformat"),;

          CREATEOBJECT("gpsolidbrush",0xffffffff)) && change the solidbrush color

CREATE CURSOR PicCursor (name c(10), pic blob) && A cursor into which we can store the blob

APPEND BLANK

IF .f. && If we're using a temp file, we'd write then read the file

          cOutFile="c:\t.jpg"

          oImage.SaveToFile(cOutFile,"image/jpeg")

          REPLACE pic WITH FILETOSTR(cOutFile)

ELSE && write to a stream: avoid the file I/O

          LOCAL ox as "VFPStream.Cstream"

          ox=CREATEOBJECT("VFPStream.Cstream")

          nStm=ox.CreateStream(1) && Create stream nStm

          IF !oImage.SaveToStream(nStm,"image/jpeg") && Call the new method to save new jpg to stream

                   ?"Err saving stream"

          ENDIF

          ox.ReadStream(nStm,"pic",0) && Read stream into blob field directly

          ox.ReleaseStream(nStm)

ENDIF

*Now create a form and display the modified blob, which was never written to disk

PUBLIC oForm as Form

oForm=CREATEOBJECT("form")

oForm.Left=250

oForm.AddObject("img","image")

oForm.Visible=1

oForm.img.Visible=1

oForm.img.width=oForm.Width

oForm.img.height = oForm.Height

oForm.img.Stretch= 1

oForm.img.PictureVal=pic && use the blob field directly

DEFINE CLASS MyGpImage as gpimage OF HOME()+"ffc\_gdiplus"

          *This method is just a copy of SaveToFile with a minor mod to save to stream

          PROCEDURE SaveToStream(nStream as Integer,tvCLSIDEncoder, rvEncoderParams)

                   local lqCLSIDEncoder

                   * Encoder may be varbinary, or string

                   do case

                   case vartype(m.tvCLSIDEncoder)=='Q'

                             lqCLSIDEncoder = m.tvCLSIDEncoder

                   case vartype(m.tvCLSIDEncoder)=='C'

                             if left(m.tvCLSIDEncoder,1)=='{'

                                      lqCLSIDEncoder = This.StringToGUID( m.tvCLSIDEncoder)

                             else

                                      lqCLSIDEncoder = This.GetEncoderCLSID(m.tvCLSIDEncoder)

                             endif

                   otherwise

                             error 11

                   endcase

                   declare integer GlobalFree in kernel32.dll integer nHandle

                   local lnEncoderParamsPtr

                   do case

                   case type("rvEncoderParams[1]")!='U'

                             lnEncoderParamsPtr = This.getEncoderParamsFromArray( m.lqCLSIDEncoder, @rvEncoderParams )

                   case vartype(m.rvEncoderParams)=='C'

                             lnEncoderParamsPtr = This.getEncoderParamsFromString( m.lqCLSIDEncoder, @rvEncoderParams )

                   case vartype(m.rvEncoderParams)=='L' and !m.rvEncoderParams

                             lnEncoderParamsPtr = 0

                   otherwise

                             error 11 && function argument

                             return .F.

                   endcase

                   DECLARE integer GdipSaveImageToStream IN gdiplus integer nImage,integer nStream,string qEncoder, integer nEncoderParamsPtr

                   This.gdipStatus = GdipSaveImageToStream ( ;

                             This.gdipHandle ;

                   , nStream ;

                   , m.lqCLSIDEncoder ;

                   , m.lnEncoderParamsPtr )

                   if m.lnEncoderParamsPtr!=0

                             GlobalFree(m.lnEncoderParamsPtr)

                   endif

 

          return 0 == This.gdipStatus

ENDDEFINE