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Can save stream as local file, but when returning it as HttpResponseMessage - always empty file

I want to write export/download functionality for files from external API.
I've created separate Action for it. Using external API I can get stream for that file.
When I am saving that stream to local file, everything is fine, file isn't empty.
var exportedFile = await this.GetExportedFile(client, this.ReportId, this.WorkspaceId, export);
// Now you have the exported file stream ready to be used according to your specific needs
// For example, saving the file can be done as follows:
string pathOnDisk = #"D:\Temp\" + export.ReportName + exportedFile.FileSuffix;
using (var fileStream = File.Create(pathOnDisk))
{
await exportedFile.FileStream.CopyToAsync(fileStream);
}
But when I return exportedFile object that contains in it stream and do next:
var result = await this._service.ExportReport(reportName, format, CancellationToken.None);
var fileResult = new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.OK);
using (var ms = new MemoryStream())
{
await result.FileStream.CopyToAsync(ms);
ms.Position = 0;
fileResult.Content = new ByteArrayContent(ms.GetBuffer());
}
fileResult.Content.Headers.ContentDisposition = new ContentDispositionHeaderValue("attachment")
{
FileName = $"{reportName}{result.FileSuffix}"
};
fileResult.Content.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue("application/octet-stream");
return fileResult;
Exported file is always empty.
Is it problem with stream or with code that try to return that stream as file?
Tried as #Nobody suggest to use ToArray
fileResult.Content = new ByteArrayContent(ms.ToArray());
the same result.
Also tried to use StreamContent
fileResult.Content = new StreamContent(result.FileStream);
still empty file.
But when I'm using StreamContent and MemmoryStream
using (var ms = new MemoryStream())
{
await result.FileStream.CopyToAsync(ms);
ms.Position = 0;
fileResult.Content = new StreamContent(ms);
}
in result I got
{
"error": "no response from server"
}
Note: from 3rd party API I get stream that is readonly.

you used GetBuffer() to retrieve the data of the memory stream.
The function you should use is ToArray()
Please read the Remarks of the documentation of these functions.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.io.memorystream.getbuffer?view=net-6.0
using (var ms = new MemoryStream())
{
ms.Position = 0;
await result.FileStream.CopyToAsync(ms);
fileResult.Content = new ByteArrayContent(ms.ToArray()); //ToArray() and not GetBuffer()
}

Your "mistake" although it's an obvious one is that you return a status message, but not the actual file itself (which is in it's own also a 200).
You return this:
var fileResult = new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.OK);
So you're not sending a file, but a response message. What I'm missing in your code samples is the procedure call itself, but since you use a HttpResonseMessage I will assume it's rather like a normal Controller action. If that is the case you could respond in a different manner:
return new FileContentResult(byteArray, mimeType){ FileDownloadName = filename };
where byteArray is ofcourse just a byte[], the mimetype could be application/octet-stream (but I suggest you'd actually find the correct mimetype for the browser to act accordingly) and the filename is the filename you want the file to be named.
So, if you were to stitch above and my comment together you'd get this:
var exportedFile = await this.GetExportedFile(client, this.ReportId, this.WorkspaceId, export);
// Now you have the exported file stream ready to be used according to your specific needs
// For example, saving the file can be done as follows:
string pathOnDisk = #"D:\Temp\" + export.ReportName + exportedFile.FileSuffix;
using (var fileStream = File.Create(pathOnDisk))
{
await exportedFile.FileStream.CopyToAsync(fileStream);
}
return new FileContentResult(System.IO.File.ReadAllBytes(pathOnDisk), "application/octet-stream") { FileDownloadName = export.ReportName + exportedFile.FileSuffix };
I suggest to try it, since you still report a 200 (and not a fileresult)

Form Recognizer SDK, analyze with custom model, file stream issue

When I'm trying to analyze a pdf document using FileStream from a local file, everything works fine.
But when I use a IFormFile and use method OpenReadStream() and pass that stream to the Analyze method for form analyzer, i get an exception. I also tried creating a new stream out of the IFromFile stream and that did not work either.
Any help will be much appreciated. Thank you
Working code:
using var stream = new FileStream("D:\\somefile.pdf", FileMode.Open);
var result = await _formRecognizerClient.AnalyzeWithCustomModelAsync(modelId, fileStream, "application/pdf");
Code I am trying to make work:
using var stream = file.OpenReadStream(); // file is an IFormFile
var result = await _formRecognizerClient.AnalyzeWithCustomModelAsync(modelId, stream , file.ContentType);

I have a solution for now, its not elegant but it works. I am of course very much looking for something better if anyone can help.
For now, I am creating a file, saving it and creating a FileStream out of it. Also works in docker as I'm testing using docker-compose
var iFormFileStream = file.OpenReadStream();
var stream = File.Create(string.Format("tempfilename.pdf", File.));
stream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
stream.CopyTo(stream);
stream.Close();
using var fileStream = new FileStream("tempfilename.pdf", FileMode.Open);
var result = await _formRecognizerClient.AnalyzeWithCustomModelAsync(modelId, fileStream, "application/pdf");

Save/Get ObservableCollection to/from Roaming

I'm making a Universal windows store app and I have an ObservableCollection.
What I want is to save the data from the ObservableCollection somewhere so that the data can sync between desktop and phone that have the same universal app, and then I need to be able to get this data so that I can update the ObservableCollection.
I haven't done anything like this before, so I'm not sure how to proceed... Do I need to save this to an XML file, and if so, how will I sync it between the different devices. The only storage methods I know how to use are:
ApplicationData.Current.LocalSettings.Values["key"] = "something";
//Which stores "something" in local storage with key "key".
ApplicationData.Current.RoamingSettings.Values["key"] = "something";
//Which stores "something" in user's Microsoft account storage with key "key".
Last one I think looks like to what I actually want, but it wouldn't be practical to save all my ObservableCollection items and properties like this.

The easiest way is to write it in a file in the app data roaming folder; app settings aren't very convenient to store collections. You can use XML, JSON or anything else. These days the trend is to use JSON, so here's an example.
Serialization:
var folder = ApplicationData.Current.RoamingFolder;
var file = await folder.CreateFileAsync("collection.json", CreationCollisionOption.ReplaceExisting);
using (var stream = await file.OpenStreamForWriteAsync())
using (var writer = new StreamWriter(stream, Encoding.UTF8))
{
string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(collection);
await writer.WriteAsync(json);
}
Deserialization:
var folder = ApplicationData.Current.RoamingFolder;
var file = await folder.GetFileAsync("collection.json");
using (var stream = await file.OpenStreamForReadAsync())
using (var reader = new StreamReader(stream, Encoding.UTF8))
{
string json = await reader.ReadToEndAsync();
var collection = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<ObservableCollection<YourClass>>(json);
}
(using JSON.NET)

How to get the stream for a Multipart file in webapi upload?

I need to upload a file using Stream (Azure Blobstorage), and just cannot find out how to get the stream from the object itself. See code below.
I'm new to the WebAPI and have used some examples. I'm getting the files and filedata, but it's not correct type for my methods to upload it. Therefore, I need to get or convert it into a normal Stream, which seems a bit hard at the moment :)
I know I need to use ReadAsStreamAsync().Result in some way, but it crashes in the foreach loop since I'm getting two provider.Contents (first one seems right, second one does not).
[System.Web.Http.HttpPost]
public async Task<HttpResponseMessage> Upload()
{
if (!Request.Content.IsMimeMultipartContent())
{
this.Request.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.UnsupportedMediaType);
}
var provider = GetMultipartProvider();
var result = await Request.Content.ReadAsMultipartAsync(provider);
// On upload, files are given a generic name like "BodyPart_26d6abe1-3ae1-416a-9429-b35f15e6e5d5"
// so this is how you can get the original file name
var originalFileName = GetDeserializedFileName(result.FileData.First());
// uploadedFileInfo object will give you some additional stuff like file length,
// creation time, directory name, a few filesystem methods etc..
var uploadedFileInfo = new FileInfo(result.FileData.First().LocalFileName);
// Remove this line as well as GetFormData method if you're not
// sending any form data with your upload request
var fileUploadObj = GetFormData<UploadDataModel>(result);
Stream filestream = null;
using (Stream stream = new MemoryStream())
{
foreach (HttpContent content in provider.Contents)
{
BinaryFormatter bFormatter = new BinaryFormatter();
bFormatter.Serialize(stream, content.ReadAsStreamAsync().Result);
stream.Position = 0;
filestream = stream;
}
}
var storage = new StorageServices();
storage.UploadBlob(filestream, originalFileName);**strong text**
private MultipartFormDataStreamProvider GetMultipartProvider()
{
var uploadFolder = "~/App_Data/Tmp/FileUploads"; // you could put this to web.config
var root = HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath(uploadFolder);
Directory.CreateDirectory(root);
return new MultipartFormDataStreamProvider(root);
}

This is identical to a dilemma I had a few months ago (capturing the upload stream before the MultipartStreamProvider took over and auto-magically saved the stream to a file). The recommendation was to inherit that class and override the methods ... but that didn't work in my case. :( (I wanted the functionality of both the MultipartFileStreamProvider and MultipartFormDataStreamProvider rolled into one MultipartStreamProvider, without the autosave part).
This might help; here's one written by one of the Web API developers, and this from the same developer.

Hi just wanted to post my answer so if anybody encounters the same issue they can find a solution here itself.
here
MultipartMemoryStreamProvider stream = await this.Request.Content.ReadAsMultipartAsync();
foreach (var st in stream.Contents)
{
var fileBytes = await st.ReadAsByteArrayAsync();
string base64 = Convert.ToBase64String(fileBytes);
var contentHeader = st.Headers;
string filename = contentHeader.ContentDisposition.FileName.Replace("\"", "");
string filetype = contentHeader.ContentType.MediaType;
}
I used MultipartMemoryStreamProvider and got all the details like filename and filetype from the header of content.
Hope this helps someone.

How do I get the name of a file generated with a stream in C#?

I'm building a Windows 8 metro app with XAML/C#. I'm saving an .xml file my data structure with a stream, like this:
XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(MyObjectType));
using (var stream = await App.LocalStorage.OpenStreamForWriteAsync(MyObject.Title + ".xml", Windows.Storage.CreationCollisionOption.GenerateUniqueName))
serializer.Serialize(stream, MyObject);
Where:
App.LocalStorage
Is obviously a StorageFolder objecty set to
Windows.Storage.ApplicationData.Current.LocalFolder
The GenerateUniqueName option is set in order to avoid collisions, because my objects can have the same title. Now, I need to get the file name my stream generated, how can I get it?
Thank you

Try creating the file first.
var sourceFileName = MyObject.Title + ".xml";
StorageFile storageFile = await App.LocalStorage.CreateFileAsync(sourceFileName, Windows.Storage.CreationCollisionOption.GenerateUniqueName);
using (var stream = await storageFile.OpenAsync(FileAccessMode.ReadWrite))
{
serializer.Serialize(stream, MyObject);
}

The OpenStreamForWriteAsync method does not seem to give you any easy way to access this information. You could switch to accessing it another way:
StorageFile file = await App.LocalStorage.CreateFileAsync(...);
using (var stream = await file.OpenAsync(FileAccessMode.ReadWrite))
// do stuff, file name is at file.Name