Byte Array an Image

[Aslan Babakhanov]

Another solution is to use GDI+ and/or TB_PICCTX control
TB_PICCTX control

[colin glenn]

I don't think you can directly paste a GIF into the clipboard as a GIF and expect that to be recognized by other programs as a GIF, there is no "GIF" format in the standard list of clipboard formats available, you'll probably need something to convert it to a packed dib and put that onto the clipboard.

[Mike Doty]

I have an active-x dll with a routine that creates a Byte array of an image (gif format that will never be animated - it is a barcode to be precise).

I'm passing a string data into the routine which then return a barcode image in byte array.

What I need to do is to put the image from the byte array into the clipboard where I can then paste the image into say a Microsoft Word document.

I'm actually using VB6 to do this but I can use powerbasic also not a problem.

__________________





I can see the need if he is using .gif.
I take that back, I haven't been able to paste gif into anything.
There is probably another way. Is there a way to copy an image from the clipboard into word?

[Michael Mattias]

To ask the unasked.... why does it have to go on the clipboard?

You have all the bytes, you can store it on disk, in a memory object, yadda, yadda......

(Guess: you want to 'paste' into a non-cooperating application?)

[Mike Doty]

Writing for export in a DLL
Note: XP SP3 maxed out at 117,108,723 bytes on my 2 gigabyte machine.
Vista had no problem with 500, 000,000. Not sure what limit is? Vista box has 3 GB.
I need to pass information between VB and PB and this will help.
Still need a private clipboard since OEM wipes out the text stuff in my tests.

#COMPILE EXE
#DIM ALL
REM #BLOAT 117108723  '117,108,723 bytes maximum bloat on this machine
#INCLUDE "win32api.inc"
FUNCTION PBMAIN AS LONG
 
  LOCAL ErrorReturned&, sFileName AS STRING
 
DO
  sFileName = INPUTBOX$("Prompt","1001 uses of bloat",EXE.FULL$)
  ErrorReturned = FileToClipBoardOEM (sFileName)
  SELECT CASE ErrorReturned
        CASE 0: ? "No error"
       CASE -1: ? "Nothing passed"
       CASE -2: ? "Zero length file"
       CASE -3: ? "Clipboard set error"
       CASE -4: ? "Clipboard set oem failed"
     CASE ELSE: ? "Error" + STR$(ErrorReturned)
  END SELECT
  ? "Length of clipboard " + FORMAT$(LEN(GetClipBoardOEM),"#,")
LOOP WHILE LEN(sFileName)
END FUNCTION
FUNCTION GetClipBoardOEM EXPORT AS STRING
  LOCAL sReadFromClip$, ClipResult& 'return nothing if error
  CLIPBOARD GET OEMTEXT TO sReadFromClip , ClipResult
  IF ClipResult = -1 THEN FUNCTION = sReadFromClip
END FUNCTION
FUNCTION FileToClipBoardOEM(sFileName AS STRING) EXPORT AS LONG
 
  LOCAL ClipResult     AS LONG          ' return 0 on success
  LOCAL h              AS LONG
  LOCAL sReadFromDisk  AS STRING
 
 
  'Don't reset the clipboard if invalid file passed
  IF LEN(sFileName) = 0 THEN
     FUNCTION = -1
     EXIT FUNCTION                     'nothing passed
  END IF
 
  IF NOT ISFILE(sFileName) THEN
     FUNCTION = 53
     EXIT FUNCTION                     'use DOS value for file not found
  END IF
 
  IF FileSize(sFileName) < 1 THEN      'Large filesize routine used
     FUNCTION = -2
     EXIT FUNCTION                     'don't use 0 length files
  END IF
 
  h = FREEFILE
  OPEN sFileName FOR BINARY AS #h
  IF ERR THEN FUNCTION = ERRCLEAR:EXIT FUNCTION
 
  GET$ #h, LOF(h), sReadFromDisk
  IF ERR THEN FUNCTION = ERRCLEAR:CLOSE h:EXIT FUNCTION
 
  CLOSE #h
  CLIPBOARD RESET, ClipResult
  IF ClipResult <> -1 THEN FUNCTION = -3:EXIT FUNCTION
 
  CLIPBOARD SET OEMTEXT sReadFromDisk, ClipResult
  IF ClipResult <> -1 THEN FUNCTION = -4:EXIT FUNCTION
 
  FUNCTION = ERRCLEAR  'did anything get missed?
END FUNCTION
FUNCTION FileSize(BYVAL sFileName AS STRING) AS QUAD
  LOCAL FindData AS WIN32_FIND_DATA
  LOCAL hDir AS LONG
  hDir = FindFirstFile(BYVAL STRPTR(sFileName), FindData)
  IF hDir = -1 THEN  'if not found return -53
    FUNCTION = -53
  ELSE               'return number of bytes
    FindClose hDir
    FUNCTION = MAK(QUAD, FindData.nFileSizeLow , FindData.nFileSizeHigh)
  END IF
 
END FUNCTION

[Mike Doty]

Not sure how to pass a VB byte array to PB, but shouldn't be a problem.
Here is complete test without the byte array.

If this method could be used with a private clipboard would be great
in sharing data between Visual Basic and PowerBASIC.

Looks like the conversion method is above.


1. Reads .gif from disk
2. Save .gif to clipboard
3. Read .gif from clipboard
4. Compares in memory
5. Write .gif from memory to disk
6. ShellExecute to see it works

#COMPILE EXE
#DIM ALL
#INCLUDE "win32api.inc"
$Gif_In   = "c:\keep\happy.gif"
$Gif_Out  = "c:\keep\junk999.gif"
FUNCTION PBMAIN AS LONG
  LOCAL ClipResult     AS LONG
  LOCAL h              AS LONG
 
  LOCAL sReadFromDisk  AS STRING
  LOCAL sReadFromClip  AS STRING
 
  h = FREEFILE
  OPEN $Gif_In FOR BINARY AS #h
  IF ERR THEN ? "Error opening file" + STR$(ERRCLEAR):GOTO Exit1
  GET$ #h, LOF(h), sReadFromDisk
  IF ERR THEN ? "Disk read error" + STR$(ERRCLEAR):CLOSE h:GOTO Exit1
  CLOSE #h
  CLIPBOARD RESET, ClipResult
  IF ClipResult <> -1 THEN ? "Clipboard reset error":GOTO Exit1
 
  CLIPBOARD SET OEMTEXT sReadFromDisk, ClipResult
  IF ClipResult <> -1 THEN ? "Clipboard Set error":GOTO Exit1
 
 
  CLIPBOARD GET OEMTEXT TO sReadFromClip , ClipResult
  IF ClipResult <> -1 THEN ? "Clipboard GET error":GOTO Exit1
 
  IF sReadFromDisk = sReadFromClip THEN
    'another check that it actually works
    h = FREEFILE
    OPEN $Gif_Out FOR BINARY AS #h
    IF ERR THEN ? "Open for output error" + STR$(ERRCLEAR)
    PUT$ #h, sReadFromClip
    IF ERR THEN ? "Disk write error" + STR$(ERRCLEAR)
    CLOSE #h
    ShellExecute(0,"open",$Gif_out,"","",1)
  ELSE
    ? "Disk file does not match what was read from clipboard"
  END IF
Exit1:
  SLEEP 1000
END FUNCTION

[Aslan Babakhanov]

You can do it by simple converting the byte array into numeric text
representation:
i.e binary data into a sequence of ascii codes in hex.

havent' tested the code below, but it should works..

'
' convert binary data into a sequence of hex values without delimeters
' each byte will be a 2 hex digits
' 
FUNCTION d2hex_to_clipboard (byval sData as string) AS LONG
    LOCAL sRz AS STRIG, i AS LONG
    FOR i=1 TO LEN(sData)
         sRz = sRz & HEX$(ASC(sData,i),2) ' <-- only two hex digits
    NEXT
    CLIPBOARD RESET
    CLIPBOARD SET OEMTEXT sRz
    FUNCTION = LEN(sRz)
END FUNCTION

'
' now, read clipboard and decode hex values into a binary string
'
FUNCTION Clipboard_to_Image () AS STRING
    LOCAL sRz AS STRIG, i, cRez AS LONG
    sRz = "" 
    CLIPBOARD GET OEMTEXT TO sRz, cRes
    IF cRes = 0 THEN 
        ?"Problem occured when reading clipboard"
        FUNCTION = ""
        EXIT FUNCTION
    END IF 
    FOR i=1 TO LEN(sRz) STEP 2
          sRz = sRz & CHR$( VAL("&H"+MID$(sRz,1,2)) ) 
    NEXT
    FUNCTION = sRz
END FUNCTION

[Gary Domantay]

I have an active-x dll with a routine that creates a Byte array of an image (gif format that will never be animated - it is a barcode to be precise).

I'm passing a string data into the routine which then return a barcode image in byte array.

What I need to do is to put the image from the byte array into the clipboard where I can then paste the image into say a Microsoft Word document.

I'm actually using VB6 to do this but I can use powerbasic also not a problem.

[Aslan Babakhanov]

I don't know how do you plan to save animated GIF image to clipboard, but I think you can stop animation and put every frame to cliboard and then read every frame as byte array (here - string)

'
' Use PBWIN 9.02
'

#COMPILE EXE
#DIM ALL

FUNCTION PBMAIN () AS LONG
    LOCAL hBmp AS DWORD, lRes AS LONG, sBuff AS STRING
    
    ?"Press OK to read clipboard"
    '
    ' get bitmap from clipboard 
    CLIPBOARD GET BITMAP TO hBmp, lRes
    '
    ' select bitmap
    GRAPHIC ATTACH hBmp, 0
    '
    ' load bitmap content into a string...
    GRAPHIC GET BITS TO sBuff
    '
    ' analyze content...
    OPEN "c:\1.dat" FOR BINARY AS 1
    PUT$ 1, sBuff
    CLOSE 1
    '
    ?"Buff size:" & STR$(LEN(sBuff))
END FUNCTION

[Gary Domantay]

Dear Sirs,

Please help! Is it possible to somehow put the image (GIF format) represented by a Byte Array into the Clipboard? If so, I appreciate if you could post the code of how to do it - thanks.

Cheers!