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Adding JPG comment with TagLibSharp showing up as Chinese in Windows File Explorer

Newbie here trying to figure this out. Any help, please, would be greatly appreciated!
I have a .net V4.8 console app utilizing the TagLibSharp V2.2.0 library which updates a JPG with a comment string. If I update the JPG comment with a string with an even number of characters and then look at the comment string in Windows File Explorer, I see the comment in English. If I update the JPG comment with a string with an odd number of characters and then look at the comment string in Windows File Explorer, I see what looks like Chinese characters. The number of Chinese characters is half the number of characters in the string. In both cases, odd or even number of characters in the string, when I retrieve the comment string using TagLibSharp, it appears in English.
Is this some kind of encoding problem? And if so, how do I solve it so that Windows File Explorer will always display the comment as English text regardless of whether the string has an even or odd number of characters in it?
Thanks for any kind and gentle guidance.
using System;
using System.IO;
namespace CommentApic
{
class Program
{
public static readonly string UserDocuments = Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments);
public static readonly string originalPic = Path.Combine(UserDocuments, "OriginalPhoto.jpg");
public static readonly string newPic = Path.Combine(UserDocuments, "NewPhoto.jpg");
static void Main(string[] args)
{
if (args.Length == 1)
{
// Display starting tags
Console.WriteLine("\n\tOriginal comments:");
Console.WriteLine(string.Format("\t\toriginalPic: \"{0}\"", getJPGComment(originalPic)));
// Copy to working copy
Console.WriteLine("\n\tCopying originalPic to newPic");
File.Copy(originalPic, newPic, true);
// Remvoe all tags
Console.WriteLine("\n\tRemoving tags on newPic");
removeAllTags(newPic);
// Display tags
Console.WriteLine("\n\tThere should be no comments now:");
Console.WriteLine(string.Format("\t\tnewPic: \"{0}\"", getJPGComment(newPic)));
// Set the comment tag
Console.WriteLine("\n\tSetting comments on newPic");
setJPGComment(newPic, args[0]);
// Show the comments
Console.WriteLine("\n\tComments Now:");
Console.WriteLine(string.Format("\t\tnewPic: \"{0}\"", getJPGComment(newPic)));
}
else
{
Console.WriteLine("Please supply a comment to add to the JPG");
}
}
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
public static string getJPGComment(string file)
{
// Local variables
string comment = "";
using (TagLib.File tagFile = TagLib.File.Create(file))
{
// Get the image tags
TagLib.Image.File image = tagFile as TagLib.Image.File;
// Ensure all tags are avaialble
image.EnsureAvailableTags();
// Get the tag
comment = image.ImageTag.Comment;
}
// Return comment to caller
return comment;
}
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
public static void removeAllTags(string file)
{
using (var taglibFile = TagLib.File.Create(file))
{
taglibFile.RemoveTags(TagLib.TagTypes.AllTags);
taglibFile.Save();
}
}
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
public static void setJPGComment(string file, string comment)
{
using (TagLib.File tagFile = TagLib.File.Create(file))
{
// Get the image tags
TagLib.Image.File image = tagFile as TagLib.Image.File;
// Ensure all tags are availble
image.EnsureAvailableTags();
// Set the tag value
image.ImageTag.Comment = comment;
// Save the tag
tagFile.Save();
}
}
}
}
Sample Output:
CommentApic.exe A
Original comments:
originalPic: "New photo comment"
Copying originalPic to newPic
Removing tags on newPic
There should be no comments now:
newPic: ""
Setting comments on newPic
Comments Now:
newPic: "A"
Windows File Explorer shows this:
CommentApic.exe AA
Original comments:
originalPic: "New photo comment"
Copying originalPic to newPic
Removing tags on newPic
There should be no comments now:
newPic: ""
Setting comments on newPic
Comments Now:
newPic: "AA"
Windows File Explorer shows this:

I managed to get this working with this code:
public static void setPhotoComment(string file, string comment)
{
// Open the file
using (TagLib.File tfile = TagLib.File.Create(file, "taglib/jpg", TagLib.ReadStyle.None))
{
// Remove all tags
tfile.RemoveTags(TagLib.TagTypes.AllTags);
// Create an empty tag
TagLib.IFD.IFDTag tag = (TagLib.IFD.IFDTag)tfile.GetTag(TagLib.TagTypes.TiffIFD, true);
// Was something returned
if (tag != null)
{
// Get the tag structure
if (tag.Structure != null)
{
// Save a pointer to the structure
TagLib.IFD.IFDStructure tagStructure = tag.Structure;
// Create our byte vector
TagLib.ByteVector commentBytes = TagLib.ByteVector.FromString(comment + "\0", TagLib.StringType.UTF16);
// Create our byte vector entry
TagLib.IFD.Entries.ByteVectorIFDEntry commentEntry = new TagLib.IFD.Entries.ByteVectorIFDEntry(JPGtag,
commentBytes);
// Add comment entry
tagStructure.SetEntry(0, commentEntry);
// Save the comment
tfile.Save();
}
}
}
}

C# - Saving and Loading data to file

I decided to get into coding and am learning c#, after making a few small projects, I decided to step it up a little and make a text adventure game, with saving and loading, and if I get to feeling zany I'll try to add some multiplayer. While I haven't really hit a road block because of it, I can't help but feel that I am doing load function REALLY sub-optimally. The save is fine, I feel like it works for me, but the load I feel can be really simplified, I just don't know what to use.
I also wouldn't really mind, but with this way, if I add other attributes/skills or whatever else that needs to be saved, I will have to add everything to the load function as well, and it will be even longer.
I have tried to search around on here, the c# documentation, and other sites, but can't find a solution that works for this case. can anyone help me find a better way of doing this? Or is this the best I can really do since it's varying data types?
Edit: To simplify and clarify what answer I am searching for, I am trying to find a simpler and more scalable way to save and load the data to a file.
static void LoadGame(CharData PlayerData)
{
Console.WriteLine("Enter the name of the character to load as shown below.");
//getting current directory info, setting to di
DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory());
//need to initialize these outside of a loop
int SaveFiles = 0;
string DisplayName = " ";
int DisplayNameLength = 0;
//looks through files in working directory ending in '.fasv', displays them in format '{x}. John Smith'
foreach (var fi in di.GetFiles("*.fasv"))
{
SaveFiles++;
DisplayNameLength = fi.Name.Length;
//remove .fasv from displayed name to make it look nicer
DisplayName = fi.Name.Remove(DisplayNameLength - 5, 5);
Console.WriteLine(SaveFiles.ToString() + ". " + DisplayName);
}
string toLoad = Console.ReadLine();
using StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(toLoad + ".fasv");
//the name is easy to get since it's a string. but integers...
PlayerData.Name = sr.ReadLine();
//... not so much. i hate all of this and i feel like it's gross, but i don't know how else to do it
int hp, xp, level, toughness, innovation, mind, empathy, spryness;
Int32.TryParse(sr.ReadLine(), out hp);
Int32.TryParse(sr.ReadLine(), out xp);
Int32.TryParse(sr.ReadLine(), out level);
Int32.TryParse(sr.ReadLine(), out toughness);
Int32.TryParse(sr.ReadLine(), out innovation);
Int32.TryParse(sr.ReadLine(), out mind);
Int32.TryParse(sr.ReadLine(), out empathy);
Int32.TryParse(sr.ReadLine(), out spryness);
PlayerData.Health = hp;
PlayerData.Level = level;
PlayerData.XP = xp;
PlayerData.Toughness = toughness;
PlayerData.Innovation = innovation;
PlayerData.Mind = mind;
PlayerData.Empathy = empathy;
PlayerData.Spryness = spryness;
sr.Close();
InGame(PlayerData);
}
static void SaveGame(CharData PlayerData)
{
using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(PlayerData.Name + ".fasv"))
{
foreach (System.Reflection.PropertyInfo stat in PlayerData.GetType().GetProperties())
{
//write player data properties to file line by line, using stat to iterate through the player data properties
sw.WriteLine(stat.GetValue(PlayerData));
}
sw.Close();
}
}

If you aren't set on a particular data format for the file data, I would recommend using a serializer such as JSON.NET. You can use NuGet to add newtonsoft.json to your project, and that would allow you to just do something similar to:
using (StreamWriter file = File.CreateText(pathToPlayerFile))
{
var serializer = new JsonSerializer();
serializer.Serialize(file, playerData);
}
And then your code to read from the file would be pretty similar:
using (var file = File.OpenText(pathToPlayerFile))
{
var serializer = new JsonSerializer();
return (CharData)serializer.Deserialize(file, typeof(CharData));
}
I borrowed those code snippets from newtonsoft.com. CreateText will create (or overwrite) the file and write the object as a JSON object.

Compare two word document in c#

I have a problem. I need to compare word document. Text and format in c# and i found a third party library to view and process the document and it is Devexpress. So i downloaded the trial to check if the problem can be solved with this
Example i have two word document
1: This is a text example
This is not a text example
In the text above the difference is only the word not
My problem is how can i check the difference including the format?
So far this is my code for iterating the contents of the Document
public void CompareEpub(string word)
{
try
{
using (DevExpress.XtraRichEdit.RichEditDocumentServer srv = new DevExpress.XtraRichEdit.RichEditDocumentServer())
{
srv.LoadDocument(word);
MyIterator visitor = new MyIterator();
DocumentIterator iterator = new DocumentIterator(srv.Document, true);
while (iterator.MoveNext())
{
iterator.Current.Accept(visitor);
}
foreach (var item in visitor.ListOfText)
{
Debug.WriteLine("text: " + item.Text + " b: " + item.IsBold + " u: " + item.IsUnderline + " i: " + item.IsUnderline);
}
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
Debug.WriteLine(ex.Message);
Debug.WriteLine(ex.StackTrace);
throw ex;
}
}
public class MyIterator : DocumentVisitorBase
{
public List<Model.HtmlContent> ListOfText { get; }
public MyIterator()
{
ListOfText= new List<Model.HtmlContent>();
}
public override void Visit(DocumentText text)
{
var m = new Model.HtmlContent
{
Text = text.Text,
IsBold = text.TextProperties.FontBold,
IsItalic = text.TextProperties.FontItalic,
IsUnderline = text.TextProperties.UnderlineWordsOnly
};
ListOfText.Add(m);
}
}
With the code above i can navigate to the text and its format. But how can i use this as a text compare?
If I'm going to create a two list for each document to compare.
How can i compare it?
If i'm going to compare the text in with another list. Compare it in loop.
I will be receiving it as only two words are equal.
Can help me with this. Or just provide an idea how i can make it work.
I didn't post in the devexpress forum because i feel that this is a problem with how i will be able to do it. And not a problem with the trial or the control i've been using. And i also found out that the control doesn't have a functionality to compare text. Like the one with Microsoft word.
Thank you.
Update:
Desired output
This is (not) a text example
The text inside the () means it is not found in the first document
The output i want is like the output of Diff Match Patch
https://github.com/pocketberserker/Diff.Match.Patch
But i can't implement the code for checking the format.

Reading text and variables from text file c#

I have the following code which tries to read data from a text file (so users can modify easily) and auto format a paragraph based on a the words in the text document plus variables in the form. I have the file "body" going into a field. my body text file has the following data in it
"contents: " + contents
I was hoping based on that to get
contents: Item 1, 2, etc.
based on my input. I only get exactly whats in the text doc despite putting "". What am I doing wrong? I was hoping to get variables in addition to my text.
string readSettings(string name)
{
string path = System.Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.MyDocuments) + "/Yuneec_Repair_Inv";
try
{
// Create an instance of StreamReader to read from a file.
// The using statement also closes the StreamReader.
using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(path + "/" + name + ".txt"))
{
string data = sr.ReadToEnd();
return data;
}
}
catch (Exception e)
{
// Let the user know what went wrong.
Console.WriteLine("The settings file for " + name + " could not be read:");
Console.WriteLine(e.Message);
string content = "error";
return content;
}
}
private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
createSettings("Email");
createSettings("Subject");
createSettings("Body");
yuneecEmail = readSettings("Email");
subject = readSettings("Subject");
body = readSettings("Body");
}
private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
bodyTextBox.Text = body;
}

If you want to provide the ability for your users to customize certain parts of the text you should use some "indicator" that you know before hand, that can be searched and parsed out, something like everything in between # and # is something you will read as a string.
Hello #Mr Douglas#,
Today is #DayOfTheWeek#.....
At that point your user can replace whatever they need in between the # and # symbols and you read that (for example using Regular Expressions) and use that as your "variable" text.
Let me know if this is what you are after and I can provide some C# code as an example.
Ok, this is the example code for that:
StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(#"C:\temp\settings.txt");
var set = sr.ReadToEnd();
var settings = new Regex(#"(?<=\[)(.*?)(?=\])").Matches(set);
foreach (var setting in settings)
{
Console.WriteLine("Parameter read from settings file is " + setting);
}
Console.WriteLine("Press any key to finish program...");
Console.ReadKey();
And this is the source of the text file:
Hello [MrReceiver],
This is [User] from [Company] something else, not very versatile using this as an example :)
[Signature]
Hope this helps!

When you read text from a file as a string, you get a string of text, nothing more.
There's no part of the system which assumes it's C#, parses, compiles and executes it in the current scope, casts the result to text and gives you the result of that.
That would be mostly not what people want, and would be a big security risk - the last thing you want is to execute arbitrary code from outside your program with no checks.
If you need a templating engine, you need to build one - e.g. read in the string, process the string looking for keywords, e.g. %content%, then add the data in where they are - or find a template processing library and integrate it.

When using MergeField FieldCodes in OpenXml SDK in C# why do field codes disappear or fragment?

I have been working successfully with the C# OpenXml SDK (Unofficial Microsoft Package 2.5 from NuGet) for some time now, but have recently noticed that the following line of code returns different results depending on what mood Microsoft Word appears to be in when the file gets saved:
var fields = document.Descendants<FieldCode>();
From what I can tell, when creating the document in the first place (using Word 2013 on Windows 8.1) if you use the Insert->QuickParts->Field and choose MergeField from the Field names left hand pane, and then provide a Field name in the field properties and click OK then the field code is correctly saved in the document as I would expect.
Then when using the aforementioned line of code I will receive a field code count of 1 field. If I subsequently edit this document (and even leave this field well alone) the subsequent saving could mean that this field code no longer is returned in my query.
Another case of the same curiousness is when I see the FieldCode nodes split across multiple items. So rather than seeing say:
" MERGEFIELD Author \\* MERGEFORMAT "
As the node name, I will see:
" MERGEFIELD Aut"
"hor \\* MERGEFORMAT"
Split as two FieldCode node values. I have no idea why this would be the case, but it certainly makes my ability to match nodes that much more exciting. Is this expected behaviour? A known bug? I don't really want to have to crack open the raw xml and edit this document to work until I understand what is going on. Many thanks all.

I came across this very problem myself, and found a solution that exists within OpenXML: a utility class called MarkupSimplifier which is part of the PowerTools for Open XML project. Using this class solved all the problems I was having that you describe.
The full article is located here.
Here are some pertinent exercepts :
Perhaps the most useful simplification that this performs is to merge adjacent runs with identical formatting.
It goes on to say:
Open XML applications, including Word, can arbitrarily split runs as necessary. If you, for instance, add a comment to a document, runs will be split at the location of the start and end of the comment. After MarkupSimplifier removes comments, it can merge runs, resulting in simpler markup.
An example of the utility class in use is:
SimplifyMarkupSettings settings = new SimplifyMarkupSettings
{
RemoveComments = true,
RemoveContentControls = true,
RemoveEndAndFootNotes = true,
RemoveFieldCodes = false,
RemoveLastRenderedPageBreak = true,
RemovePermissions = true,
RemoveProof = true,
RemoveRsidInfo = true,
RemoveSmartTags = true,
RemoveSoftHyphens = true,
ReplaceTabsWithSpaces = true,
};
MarkupSimplifier.SimplifyMarkup(wordDoc, settings);
I have used this many times with Word 2010 documents using VS2015 .Net Framework 4.5.2 and it has made my life much, much easier.
Update:
I have revisited this code and have found it clears upon runs on MERGEFIELDS but not IF FIELDS that reference mergefields e.g.
{if {MERGEFIELD When39} = "Y???" "Y" "N" }
I have no idea why this might be so, and examination of the underlying XML offers no hints.

Word will often split text runs with into multiple text runs for no reason I've ever understood. When searching, comparing, tidying etc. We preprocess the body with method which combines multiple runs into a single text run.
/// <summary>
/// Combines the identical runs.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="body">The body.</param>
public static void CombineIdenticalRuns(W.Body body)
{
List<W.Run> runsToRemove = new List<W.Run>();
foreach (W.Paragraph para in body.Descendants<W.Paragraph>())
{
List<W.Run> runs = para.Elements<W.Run>().ToList();
for (int i = runs.Count - 2; i >= 0; i--)
{
W.Text text1 = runs[i].GetFirstChild<W.Text>();
W.Text text2 = runs[i + 1].GetFirstChild<W.Text>();
if (text1 != null && text2 != null)
{
string rPr1 = "";
string rPr2 = "";
if (runs[i].RunProperties != null) rPr1 = runs[i].RunProperties.OuterXml;
if (runs[i + 1].RunProperties != null) rPr2 = runs[i + 1].RunProperties.OuterXml;
if (rPr1 == rPr2)
{
text1.Text += text2.Text;
runsToRemove.Add(runs[i + 1]);
}
}
}
}
foreach (W.Run run in runsToRemove)
{
run.Remove();
}
}

I tried to simplify the document with Powertools but the result was a corrupted word file. I make this routine for simplify only fieldcodes that has specifics names, works in all parts on the docs (maindocumentpart, headers and footers):
internal static void SimplifyFieldCodes(WordprocessingDocument document)
{
var masks = new string[] { Constants.VAR_MASK, Constants.INP_MASK, Constants.TBL_MASK, Constants.IMG_MASK, Constants.GRF_MASK };
SimplifyFieldCodesInElement(document.MainDocumentPart.RootElement, masks);
foreach (var headerPart in document.MainDocumentPart.HeaderParts)
{
SimplifyFieldCodesInElement(headerPart.Header, masks);
}
foreach (var footerPart in document.MainDocumentPart.FooterParts)
{
SimplifyFieldCodesInElement(footerPart.Footer, masks);
}
}
internal static void SimplifyFieldCodesInElement(OpenXmlElement element, string[] regexpMasks)
{
foreach (var run in element.Descendants<Run>()
.Select(item => (Run)item)
.ToList())
{
var fieldChar = run.Descendants<FieldChar>().FirstOrDefault();
if (fieldChar != null && fieldChar.FieldCharType == FieldCharValues.Begin)
{
string fieldContent = "";
List<Run> runsInFieldCode = new List<Run>();
var currentRun = run.NextSibling();
while ((currentRun is Run) && currentRun.Descendants<FieldCode>().FirstOrDefault() != null)
{
var currentRunFieldCode = currentRun.Descendants<FieldCode>().FirstOrDefault();
fieldContent += currentRunFieldCode.InnerText;
runsInFieldCode.Add((Run)currentRun);
currentRun = currentRun.NextSibling();
}
// If there is more than one Run for the FieldCode, and is one we must change, set the complete text in the first Run and remove the rest
if (runsInFieldCode.Count > 1)
{
// Check fielcode to know it's one that we must simplify (for not to change TOC, PAGEREF, etc.)
bool applyTransform = false;
foreach (string regexpMask in regexpMasks)
{
Regex regex = new Regex(regexpMask);
Match match = regex.Match(fieldContent);
if (match.Success)
{
applyTransform = true;
break;
}
}
if (applyTransform)
{
var currentRunFieldCode = runsInFieldCode[0].Descendants<FieldCode>().FirstOrDefault();
currentRunFieldCode.Text = fieldContent;
runsInFieldCode.RemoveAt(0);
foreach (Run runToRemove in runsInFieldCode)
{
runToRemove.Remove();
}
}
}
}
}
}
Hope this helps!!!