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A generic error occurred in GDI+ (screenshot SaveAsFile, ExternalException)

Hello I tried looking through questions that may have my answer but none of them did.
I am doing web automation testing and trying to take a screenshot of when an error occurs and save it to a file in another folder.
My program has a 30 second timeout when searching for elements on the page. If after 30 seconds no element is found, it takes a SS, reloads the page, and tries again.
The first screenshot works fine. But on the second run through, it tries to save another screenshot to the folder and I get this incredibly vague error that is seemingly caused by a hundred different things, so I'm not quite sure what the problem is.
Here's my code:
public void takeScreenShot()
{
string ssPath = _persistencePath += "\\Errors";
string currTime = DateTime.Now.ToString(#"MMM-ddd-d-HH.mm");
Screenshot ss = ((ITakesScreenshot)_driver).GetScreenshot();
try
{
ss.SaveAsFile(ssPath + "\\ERROR-" + currTime + ".png", System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Png);
ssCount = 0;
}
catch (System.Runtime.InteropServices.ExternalException)
{
ssCount++;
//error occurs here
ss.SaveAsFile(ssPath + "\\ERROR-" + currTime + "(" + ssCount + ")" + ".png", System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Png);
}
I initially thought the issue was that it was trying to save a file of the same name, because if the error happens during the same minute then the file name is the same. So that's why I added that catch block, in an attempt to change the name if it occurs in the same minute. But that didn't fix it.
Again I tried searching all over and couldn't find an answer. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Well, if anyone's curious I solved it. Turns out I'm just an idiot.
string ssPath = _persistencePath += "\\Errors";
this line was appending another \Errors to the target path on the second run though. thus invalidating the path, because \Errors\Errors didn't exist.
Thanks to everyone who commented/tried to help!

The Screenshot class doesn't dispose of the image resource properly, so it may be a bug in the Selenium framework. A work-around is to do it yourself:
public void takeScreenShot()
{
string ssPath = System.IO.Path.Combine(_persistencePath, #"\Errors");
string currTime = DateTime.Now.ToString(#"MMM-ddd-d-HH.mm");
string fileName = System.IO.Path.Combine(ssPath, #"\ERROR-" + currTime + ".png");
Screenshot ss = ((ITakesScreenshot)_driver).GetScreenshot();
using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(ss.AsByteArray))
using (Image screenShotImage = Image.FromStream(ms))
{
Bitmap cp = new Bitmap(screenShotImage);
cp.Save(filename, ImageFormat.Png);
cp.Dispose();
}
}
No assurance that this will fix it, but at least you can be reasonable assured that the resources are disposed of properly.
Note requires you to reference System.Drawing.dll in the project.
Edit another workaround posted.

Finally i did it!
check out this, just write completed PATHNAME,
pathname+filename+extension: #"C:\folderWithPermission\test.bmp"
JUST TAKE FOLDER WITH WRITE PERMISSIONS, was like o.0
here's the method
public DriverExecutor CaptureScreen(string filename)
{
Screenshot shot = this.myRemoteWebDriver.GetScreenshot();
MemoryStream ms;
Image imgShot;
Bitmap bitmap;
try
{
using (ms = new MemoryStream(shot.AsByteArray))
using (imgShot = Image.FromStream(ms))
using (bitmap = new Bitmap(imgShot))
{
bitmap.Save(filename, ImageFormat.Bmp);
}
}catch(Exception err){}
return this;
}
NOTE: im asssuming what remoteDriver was rightly instanced and encapsulated on a own object , i hope this help you all ^^

A generic error occurred in GDI+ again

I understand, what this message means (need to do Dispose for unmanaged resources), but really don't understand why it happens in my case:
System.Drawing.Image imgAnimaha, imgNoanimaha;
using (System.IO.Stream file = thisExe.GetManifestResourceStream("WindowsApplication1.img.noanimaha135.gif"))
{
using (System.Drawing.Image img = Image.FromStream(file))
{
imgNoanimaha = (System.Drawing.Image)img.Clone();
}
}
using (System.IO.Stream file = thisExe.GetManifestResourceStream("WindowsApplication1.img.animaha135.gif"))
{
using (System.Drawing.Image img = Image.FromStream(file))
{
imgAnimaha = (System.Drawing.Image)img.Clone();
}
}
pbDiscovery.Image = imgAnimaha;
In this case I get "A generic error occurred in GDI+" Why and how to solve?
PS. If I write the following:
pbDiscovery.Image = imgNoanimaha;
It works correctly.
I really don't understand where and which unmanaged resource is not disposed...

The problem is that Image.Clone(), as in:
using (System.Drawing.Image img = Image.FromStream(file))
{
imgAnimaha = (System.Drawing.Image)img.Clone();
}
... does not create a deep copy of the image. It creates a copy of all the header information, but not the actual pixel data (it just points to the original pixel data). The original (and only) pixel data is disposed along with the original img object when the using goes out of scope.
So the question then becomes, what is the point of the using here? I would suggest there is none. Read the image into a System.Drawing.Image object and keep it alive as long as you need the pixel data (e.g. as long as the Image will need to be redrawn) and only Dispose it after it does not need to be displayed again.

Deleting a bitmap from local directory

Alright it has come to this. I searched this website among many others and no one can seem to give me a straight answer so I'm going to try just asking outright. Been on this issue for about a solid 3 days and I can't afford to waste any more time on it.
Goal: The app I am building is in WPF and is going to be used as a bug tracker for a project my design team and I will be undertaking soon. Since we are going to be building a game in C++ most of the errors that occur will have a visual element to them so I inlcuded functionality to provide an image of the error in question when the user adds a bug to the list. I then take that image and save it to a local directory (for testing). Now the image path in the Error object points to a path that leads to the local directory. This functionality has been tested and works fine. My problem showes up when I want to delete a bug from the list. I am getting that very infamous "IO Exception" saying that the image I want to delete is being used by another process.
So Far: At first I tried very elegant solutions, but as with all things you get to a point where you just want to see if you can get the thing to even work at all. So I am at the point where most of the code I am using is experimental and radical. So please when looking at it note that the code being used is out of desperation, so any "simple" solutions have probably already been tried (I did research this a lot becuase I hate having to do this). Things i can think of off the top of my head are the obsurd amount of disposes and forced garbage collections being called so please to not comment on the negative nature of this practice, I am well aware :).
The Code
Saving image to local directory
public void OnBrowseClick()
{
Microsoft.Win32.OpenFileDialog openBox = new Microsoft.Win32.OpenFileDialog();
// Show dialog box to user and grab output
Nullable<bool> result = openBox.ShowDialog();
if (result == true)
{
// Create temp variable to hold local path string
string localPath = Directory.GetCurrentDirectory();
// Grab the extension of the specified file path
string extension = openBox.FileName.Substring(openBox.FileName.LastIndexOf("\\"));
// Add extension to local path
localPath += extension;
// Create local copy of image at given file path (being ridiculous at this point)
using (Stream stream = new FileStream(openBox.FileName, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.ReadWrite))
{
using (Bitmap bmp = LoadImage(stream))
{
using (Bitmap temp = (Bitmap)bmp.Clone())
{
temp.Save(localPath);
temp.Dispose();
}
bmp.Dispose();
}
stream.Dispose();
}
// Set the URL in the image text box (UI stuff)
LocalError.ImagePath = localPath;
}
}
The following is the LoadImage function that is used in the function above
private Bitmap LoadImage(Stream stream)
{
Bitmap retval = null;
using (Bitmap bitmap = new Bitmap(stream))
{
retval = new Bitmap(bitmap.Width, bitmap.Height, bitmap.PixelFormat);
using (Graphics gdi = Graphics.FromImage(retval))
{
gdi.DrawImageUnscaled(bitmap, 0, 0);
gdi.Flush();
gdi.Dispose();
bitmap.Dispose();
}
}
// Garbage collection here to be safe
GC.WaitForPendingFinalizers();
GC.Collect();
return retval;
}
And finally we come to where I try to delete the image
public void OnDeleteClick()
{
// Ask user to make sure they want to delete selected item(s)
MessageBoxResult result = MessageBox.Show("Are you sure you want to delete selected item(s) from the list?",
"Delete", MessageBoxButton.YesNo);
if (result == MessageBoxResult.Yes)
{
for( int i = 0; i < Parent.ErrorListControl.ErrorDataGrid.SelectedItems.Count; ++i)
{
// Get path to image
string path = (Parent.ErrorListControl.ErrorDataGrid.SelectedItems[i] as Error).ImagePath;
// Even tried calling garbage collection here!!!!!
System.GC.WaitForPendingFinalizers();
System.GC.Collect();
File.Delete(path);
// Remove the error from the error list
Parent.ErrorListVM.ErrorList.Remove((Error)Parent.ErrorListControl.ErrorDataGrid.SelectedItems[i]);
// Decrement counter because we altered the list while in a loop
i--;
}
}
}
Notes: If anyone would like me to explain anything further or if you need to know something I left out please just ask I will get back to you ASAP! Any suggestions are helpful at this point I have absolutley no idea what I am doing wrong. I generally only program in a C++ environment so I tend to manage my own memory this whole "garbage collection" thing is really throwing a wrench in our project! (Off topic note: I do not know why I am not getting any color highlighting so I apologize to anyone who takes the time to read this).

Here's a simple way to do what you want. In this example, I'm using Path.GetTempFileName() to generate a random file name in the local user's temp directory. If you don't need to persist the files then it's a good place to store them temporarily. Also, the user could theoretically import two files with the same name. So you want to use some kind of random filename generation or other mechanism to avoid conflicts.
private void browseButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
var openFileDialog = new Microsoft.Win32.OpenFileDialog();
if (openFileDialog.ShowDialog(this) == true)
{
using (Bitmap originalImage = new Bitmap(openFileDialog.FileName))
{
string tempFileName = System.IO.Path.GetTempFileName();
originalImage.Save(tempFileName);
// LocalError.LocalPath
LocalPath = tempFileName;
}
}
}
private void deleteButton_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
{
if (File.Exists(LocalPath))
{
File.Delete(LocalPath);
}
}
Although a simple File.Copy should suffice as long as you have the right paths, I was just providing a solution that matched your question.
EDIT:
Actually the current directory does not seem to be changed by the OpenFileDialog. I could swear that it did at some point. So I don't think this is your problem. Regardless, this code still works for me and you shouldn't require anything more complicated than this.
EDIT #2:
It seems the lock is actually caused by the image being databound to the view and presumably locked by the BitmapSource. You should be able to create it without locking the file. Generally, this is slower so don't do it this way unless you need to be able to modify or delete the file.
bitmapSource = new BitmapImage();
bitmapSource.BeginInit();
bitmapSource.CacheOption = BitmapCacheOption.OnLoad;
bitmapSource.CreateOption = BitmapCreateOptions.IgnoreImageCache;
bitmapSource.UriSource = new Uri(ImagePath, UriKind.Absolute);
bitmapSource.EndInit();

Since your LoadImage method does simple copy of the image, why not use File.Copy(source, dest) and avoid all the bitmaps, drawings, etc? Your goal might be to modify local bitmap after it's created, but it can still be done after copy.
Also, when using the using block, explicit .Dispose() is not required, as using block does it for you:
using (var obj = new SomeDisposableObject())
{
// code here
// obj.Dispose(); <-- not needed, since...
} // ...at this point obj.Dispose is called automatically.

Could this use of System.Drawing.Image.FromStream be pointing the same memory?

I'm having to fix a bug in some very old code that converts a Base64 string to a image using Memory Stream. Basically it loops through a list of images stored as base64 strings and converts them to images then draws them using ActiveReports.
The bug is that once it loads one image all following images will be a copy of the first image.
I found the code that is doing the conversion of string to image and immediately noticed it isn't disposing of the memory stream. If I wrap the memory stream in a using block I get a GDI exception. I'm guessing this is because the image isn't really read from memory yet or something, but I'd like to hear if anyone has a guess. Thanks in advance!
byte[] oGraphic = null;
try
{
oGraphic = Convert.FromBase64String(psGraphic);
DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Picture oImg = new Picture();
oImg.Top = this.Legend.Top + this.fTopFirst;
oImg.Visible = true;
oImg.Name = sLabelName;
oImg.PictureAlignment = PictureAlignment.Center;
oImg.Image = null;
if (oGraphic != null)
{
var oStream = new MemoryStream(oGraphic);
oImg.Image = System.Drawing.Image.FromStream(oStream);
oImg.Height = Convert.ToSingle(oImg.Image.Height)/(oImg.Image.VerticalResolution);
oImg.Width = Convert.ToSingle(oImg.Image.Width)/(oImg.Image.HorizontalResolution);
oImg.SizeMode = SizeModes.Zoom;
this.fGraphicHeight = oImg.Height;
this.fGraphicWidth = oImg.Width;
if (this.fConstantGraphic > this.fGraphicWidth)
oImg.Left = this.Legend.Left + this.fLeftFirst +
((this.fConstantGraphic - this.fGraphicWidth)/2);
else
oImg.Left = this.Legend.Left + this.fLeftFirst;
}
else
{
this.fGraphicHeight = 0f;
this.fGraphicWidth = 0f;
}
this.GHMap.Controls.Add(oImg);
}
catch (Exception oE)
{
.....
}

The only thing I can imagine is if there is a line of code missing from what you have here:
if (oGraphic == null) // missing line
oGraphic = Convert.FromBase64String(psGraphic);
There is no reason for this byte[] to be declared outside of the try { } block. That array gets wrapped into a MemoryStream which is then wrapped into an Image. That image is attached to a brand new Picture which is added to a Picture collection.
What is it we don't see?

Here's another guess (I'll leave the first guess alone for posterity):
I'm not familiar with Active Reports, but it looks like you're setting the Top and PictureAlignment properties of the Picture object to the same value and adding more than one Picture. Is it possible they are all there, but one on top of each other? So the result is a single picture?

Guess #3 (one of these is going to get a checkmark, I just know it!)
Everything looks OK in the code provided, therefore the problem is somewhere else (though it's still entirely possible I'm wrong about it being OK).
Are you certain that psGraphic is different each time this code is executed?

The cause of the problem is that the Picture control is a single control instance on a single section. So you're just overwriting the image on this single control over and over.
If the only thing you want to see in this report is the images, then the best thing to do is use ActiveReports' Unbound mode and treat each image as another "record". See this walkthrough for an example of using unbound mode (see the DataInitialize and FetchData events for the meat of the matter).
Using unbound mode, ActiveReports will render the image one after the other in sections treating each image like a new record. The code would be something like the following (sorry I don't have ActiveReports handy at the moment so I can't check this code, but this should be pretty close. Let me know if you run into any problems and I'll clean it up in the morning):
In ActiveReports' ReportStart Event:
DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Picture oImg = new Picture();
oImg.Top = 0;
oImg.Visible = true;
oImg.Name = sLabelName;
oImg.PictureAlignment = PictureAlignment.Center;
// setting DataField "binds" the Picture control to get it's data from the MyImageField field which we'll initialize and bind in the events below
oImg.DataField = "MyImageField";
this.Sections["Detail"].Controls.Add(oImg);
In ActiveReports' DataInitialize Event:
this.Fields.Add("MyImageField");
In ActiveReports FetchData Event:
var imageBytes = Convert.FromBase64String(_imageStrings.Current); // I'm not sure where the base64 image strings come from, some I'm assuming you can put them in an enumerator field in the report like "_imageStrings"
var imageStream = new MemoryStream(imageBytes);
var image = Image.FromStream(imageStream);
Fields["MyImageField"].Value = image;
// This tells ActiveReports if there are more records, and if it should raise the FetchData event again (allowing you to add another image).
eArgs.EOF = !_imageStrings.MoveNext();
If you need to resize the image control for each image, use the section's Format event for that. You could use something like the following:
In Detail_Format Event:
var pictureControl = this.Sections["Detail"].Controls["MyImageControl"] as DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Picture;
pictureControl.Width = Convert.ToSingle(pictureControl.Image.Width)/(pictureControl.Image.VerticalResolution);
pictureControl.Width = Convert.ToSingle(pictureControl.Image.Width)/(pictureControl.Image.HorizontalResolution);
Finally, ActiveReports will also just automatically bind to a set of POCO objects in an IEnumerable (or IList, I forget). So you could simply have a "MyImage" class with a property like "MyImage" and ActiveReports will read it and bind with it (you wouldn't have to write any code in DataInitialize and FetchData). I think you might also just be able to put the MemoryStream in there as the binding too and ActiveReports will read it, but I'm not positive on that.
BTW: The reason that GDI exception occurs when disposing the MemoryStream is because GDI attempts to just seek within that single MemoryStream for the image data rather than making a copy of it. So you'll need to supply each System.Drawing.Image instance with a new stream (don't worry MemoryStream will clean itself up when everything is released).

It turned out to be a problem with the way we were creating the image. Adding the code below fixed the problem.
oImg.Image = System.Drawing.Image.FromStream(oStream);
TO THIS
oImg.Image = ImageFromBase64String(psGraphic);
private Image ImageFromBase64String(string sBase64String)
{
using (var sStream = new MemoryStream(Convert.FromBase64String(sBase64String)))
using (var iSourceImage = Image.FromStream(sStream))
{
return new Bitmap(iSourceImage);
}
}

Why am I getting "the process cannot access the file * because it is being used by another process" with this code?

I'm trying to convert bmp files in a folder to jpg, then delete the old files. The code works fine, except it can't delete the bmp's.
DirectoryInfo di = new DirectoryInfo(args[0]);
FileInfo[] files = di.GetFiles("*.bmp");
foreach (FileInfo file in files)
{
string newFile = file.FullName.Replace("bmp", "jpg");
Bitmap bm = (Bitmap)Image.FromFile(file.FullName);
bm.Save(newFile, ImageFormat.Jpeg);
}
for (int i = 0; i < files.Length; i++)
files[i].Delete();
The files aren't being used by another program/process like the error indicates, so I'm assuming the problem is here. But to me the code seems fine, since I'm doing everything sequentially. This is all that there is to the program too, so the error can't be caused by code elsewhere.

Try wrap bitmaps with using:
using (Bitmap bm = (Bitmap)Image.FromFile(file.FullName))
{
bm.Save(newFile, ImageFormat.Jpeg);
}
This will dispose bitmap objects just after they were saved.

The best way to solve the issue with Image.FromFile wherein it leaves file handles open is to use Image.FromStream instead.
using (FileStream fs = new FileStream(filePath, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
{
using (Image original = Image.FromStream(fs))
{
...
Using an explicit Dispose(), a using() statement or setting the value to null doesn't solve the issue until a garbage collection happens (and forcing a garbage collection to happen is generally a bad idea).

public static Image LoadImage( string fileFullName )
{
Stream fileStream = File.OpenRead( fileFullName );
Image image = Image.FromStream( fileStream );
// PropertyItems seem to get lost when fileStream is closed to quickly (?); perhaps
// this is the reason Microsoft didn't want to close it in the first place.
PropertyItem[] items = image.PropertyItems;
fileStream.Close();
foreach ( PropertyItem item in items )
{
image.SetPropertyItem( item );
}
return image;
}

The Bitmap object encapsulates a file handle. You must call Dispose on the bitmap object after you have called Save.
You're seeing a problem because those Bitmap objects haven't been garbage collected yet.

After bm.Save, you should release your bitmap object. Try adding bm.Dispose(); after bm.Save(newFile, ImageFormat.Jpeg)

From MSDN:
Always call Dispose before you release
your last reference to the Image.
Otherwise, the resources it is using
will not be freed until the garbage
collector calls the Image object's
Finalize method.
I am not sure what you are doing with these images after then, but sometimes you will need also to set the image reference to null then call GC.Collect().