[VBnet File] Pure VB: Combine a Picture and Text into a Single File


	Visual Basic File Routines Pure VB: Combine a Picture and Text into a Single File

Posted:	Sunday May 07, 2000
Updated:	Monday December 26, 2011

Applies to:	VB3, VB4-32, VB5, VB6
Developed with:	VB6, Windows NT4
OS restrictions:	None
Author:	Larry Serflaten, VBnet - Randy Birch

Related:	Pure VB: Combine Multiple Elements into a Single File RegSetValueEx: Create a Registered File Association

Prerequisites

None.

This question appears so often in the newsgroups as to almost qualify as a FAQ. In answering one such question, Larry Serflaten provided this answer.

This demo takes the contents of a picture (or image) control, and the contents of a text box, and creates a composite file that contains both. The key to this method (which in this demo saves the picture followed by the textbox text) is saving to the end of the file an additional Long value that represents the picture size; a value that indicates where in the file one block of data ends and the next block begins.

On loading the file, the Long value is retrieved first, a byte array is dimensioned to the size required to load the image data, and the picture is loaded into the byte array. The remaining portion of the file (minus the trailing Long) is retrieved directly back into the text box. Both steps use VB's Binary file mode; no APIs are required.

To create this demo load any picture into a picture box, and any text into the textbox. The size of the data placed into the textbox is of no consequence, unless of course such text exceeds the text control's maximum capacity.

BAS Module Code

None.

Form Code

Drop a picture box (Picture1), a text box (Text1) and three command buttons (Command1-Command3) onto a form. Load a picture and populate the text box, then add the following code. Be sure to set the Const paths in the general declarations to valid files and paths on your system.

Option Explicit

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
' Copyright ©1996-2011 VBnet/Randy Birch, All Rights Reserved.
' Some pages may also contain other copyrights by the author.
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
' Distribution: You can freely use this code in your own
'               applications, but you may not reproduce 
'               or publish this code on any web site,
'               online service, or distribute as source 
'               on any media without express permission.
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''

Const sCombinedFile = "d:\vb5\test\combined.dat"
Const sTmpPix = "d:\vb5\test\picxtract.bmp"


Private Sub Command1_Click()

   Dim nImageSize As Long
   Dim hFile As Long

  'save the picture portion as the first entry
  'in the "combined file"
   SavePicture Picture1.Picture, sCombinedFile
    
  'Open the combined file for append in order to
  'add the text to file
   hFile = FreeFile
   
   Open sCombinedFile For Binary As #hFile
         
     'Retrieve the size of the image into a
     'variable for later use, then append the
     'text into the same file.
      nImageSize = LOF(hFile)
      Seek #hFile, nImageSize + 1
      Put #hFile, , Text1.Text

     'The file now contains both the image
     'and text file. As a final step, we
     'save the length of image retrieved
     'above as the last item in the file.
      Seek #hFile, LOF(hFile)
      Put #hFile, LOF(hFile) + 1, nImageSize
    
   Close #hFile
    
End Sub


Private Sub Command2_Click()

   Set Picture1.Picture = Nothing
   Text1.Text = ""
    
End Sub


Private Sub Command3_Click()

   Dim nImageSize As Long
   Dim hFile As Long
   Dim hFileOut As Long
   Dim PicData() As Byte
    
  'First step in the extraction process is to
  'obtain the length of image portion saved
  'as the last item in the file.
   hFile = FreeFile
   Open sCombinedFile For Binary As #hFile
   
     'move to the LOF - 3 and load the
     'saved image size
      Seek #hFile, LOF(hFile) - 3
      Get #hFile, , nImageSize
      
     'with the image size, create a byte array
     'large enough to accommodate the image
      ReDim PicData(0 To nImageSize - 1) As Byte
    
     'and load the image data, repositioning the
     'file pointer to the beginning first
      Seek #hFile, 1
      Get #hFile, , PicData()
         
     'write the pix to a temporary file in
     'order to use the LoadPicture method.
      hFileOut = FreeFile
      Open sTmpPix For Binary As #hFileOut
         Put #hFileOut, , PicData()
      Close #hFileOut
    
     'load the text portion to the textbox. The
     'text begins immediately after the image, and
     'extends for the file length minus the trailing
     '4 bytes for the Long that stored the image size.
      Seek #hFile, nImageSize + 1
      Text1.Text = Input(LOF(hFile) - nImageSize - 4, hFile)
      
   Close #hFile
   
  'Load the saved image from the tmp file
  'and kill it
   Picture1 = LoadPicture(sTmpPix)
   Kill sTmpPix
    
End Sub

Comments

Additional code should be added before reading the files to assure that the files exist. You can find FileExists methods on the FileAPI page.

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