"Artifacts" while streaming images in c# - c#

I wanted to create a project for streaming multiple images through net. I just wanted to start with small, functional code but already encountered a funky problem for me. Image is received, but it contains graphical bugs like its only a part of it.
Sadly cant show images cause of low rputation, here is link.
http://img543.imageshack.us/img543/1508/buggedy.jpg
Of course, million dollars for answer. ^^
TcpListener listener;
TcpClient client;
TcpClient datatoclient;
NetworkStream stream;
Host part:
listener = new TcpListener(5000);
listener.Start();
datatoclient = listener.AcceptTcpClient();
NetworkStream nowystream = datatoclient.GetStream();
MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
byte[] image = File.ReadAllBytes("default.jpg");
switch (trackBar1.Value)
{
case 0:
image = File.ReadAllBytes("mirrion.jpg");
break;
case 1:
image = File.ReadAllBytes("tenis.jpg");
break;
case 2:
image = File.ReadAllBytes("marisasold.jpg");
break;
}
// get the image size in bytes
int numberOfBytes = image.Length;
// put the size into an array
byte[] numberOfBytesArray = BitConverter.GetBytes(numberOfBytes);
// send the image size
nowystream.Write(numberOfBytesArray, 0, numberOfBytesArray.Length);
// send the image
nowystream.Write(image, 0, numberOfBytes);
Client part:
client = new TcpClient("127.0.0.1", 5000);
stream = client.GetStream();
byte[] data = new byte[4];
// read the size
stream.Read(data, 0, data.Length);
int size = BitConverter.ToInt32(data, 0);
label1.Text = size.ToString();
// prepare buffer
data = new byte[size];
// load image
stream.Read(data, 0, data.Length);
// save image to file for test
File.WriteAllBytes("received.jpg", data);
MemoryStream MS = new MemoryStream(data);
pictureBox1.Image = Image.FromStream(MS);

stream.Read doesn't guarantee that it will read data.Length bytes. Instead it returns number of bytes read. So you should check its return value and continue reading till you get all the bytes.
See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.stream.read(v=vs.90).aspx (Section Return Value)
Thr read method can be something like this
void Read(Stream stream, byte[] buffer,int offset,int len)
{
int read = 0;
while (read < len)
{
read += stream.Read(buffer, offset + read, len-read);
}
}

Related

length header suddenly has wrong value when use read int32?

I wrote a tcp listener to receive a sequence of images from single client , this is the code of server :
new Thread(() =>
{
while (true)
{
displayingFrame.Start(); // another thread to display images
Socket socket = listener.AcceptSocket();
TcpClient client = new TcpClient();
client.Client = socket;
Debug.WriteLine("Connection accepted.");
var childSocketThread = new Thread(() =>
{
NetworkStream ns = client.GetStream();
BinaryReader br = new BinaryReader(ns);
while (true)
{
using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream())
{
int length = br.ReadInt32();
Debug.WriteLine("length : " + length);
byte[] buf = new byte[1024];
int totalReaded = 0;
int readed = 0;
while (totalReaded < length)
{
readed = br.Read(buf, 0, buf.Length);
ms.Write(buf, 0, readed);
totalReaded += readed;
}
byte[] frame = ms.ToArray();
this.frames.Enqueue(frame);
Debug.WriteLine("frame enqueued with length " + frame.Length);
}
}
});
childSocketThread.Start();
}
}).Start();
it receive frames very well but suddenly br.ReadInt32(); returns a very big length so br.Read(buf, 0, buf.Length); takes a very long time writing to memory stream and it writes a wrong data inside frame .
this is the client :
TcpClient client = new TcpClient();
client.Connect(new IPEndPoint(IPAddress.Loopback, 20000));
NetworkStream ns = client.GetStream();
BinaryWriter bw = new BinaryWriter(ns);
while ( true )
{
byte[] frame = Screenshot();
bw.Write(frame.Length);
Console.WriteLine("a frame length has flushed : " + frame.Length);
bw.Write(frame);
Console.WriteLine("a frame itself has flushed");
}
Console.ReadKey();
and here the debug info :
If you check the hex value you're getting - 1196314761 - you'll get 0x474E5089 and finally convert to ASCII you will get GNP\x89 which gives us the known magic value \x89PNG that is the marker of PNG file. You're actually reading the content of your screenshot as the length.
Make sure that you're code for reading the data does not read too much from the previous frame. I think you code for reading the data does not include the fact that you might get content of 2 frames in one .Read but then later you just don't care if you have too much data. You only check if it's not less than length.

Will C# NetworkStream.Read() wait until the specified amount of data is read?

In C/C++ read() on regular non-blocking network sockets will return immediately with the amount of data currently available in the buffer, up to the amount specified (so if we ask for 16 bytes and there are only 8 available at the moment, those 8 we'll get and it's up to us to call read() again and fetch all data).
In C# there's NetworkStream, which has built-in timeouts - does this mean that NetworkStream.Read() waits until either the timeout is reached or the amount of data requested is read, or will it give us any amount of data currently available in the buffer larger than 0 up to the amount requested (as the standard sockets do) even if there's time left?
It will read available data up to the number of bytes specified in the parameters, as described on MSDN, unless the stream is closed via timeout or other exception.
The Read operation reads as much data as is available, up to the number of bytes specified by the size parameter. If the remote host shuts down the connection, and all available data has been received, the Read method completes immediately and return zero bytes.
I solved it like this:
byte[] TotalData = new byte[0];
byte[] TempData = new byte[0];
using (TcpClient TCPClient = new TcpClient())
{
try
{
TCPClient.Connect(somehost, someport);
}
catch (Exception eee)
{
// Report the connection failed in some way if necessary
}
if (TCPClient.Connected)
{
using (NetworkStream clientStream = TCPClient.GetStream())
{
// You can reduce the size of the array if you know
// the data received is going to be small,
// don't forget to change it a little down too
byte[] TCPBuffer = new byte[524288];
int bytesRead = 0;
int loop = 0;
// Wait for data to begin coming in for up to 20 secs
while (!clientStream.DataAvailable && loop< 2000)
{
loop++;
Thread.Sleep(10);
}
// Keep reading until nothing comes for over 1 sec
while (clientStream.DataAvailable)
{
bytesRead = 0;
try
{
bytesRead = clientStream.Read(TCPBuffer, 0, 524288);
Array.Resize(ref TempData, bytesRead);
Array.Copy(TCPBuffer, TempData, bytesRead);
// Add data to TotalData
TotalData = JoinArrays(TotalData, TempData);
}
catch
{
break;
}
if (bytesRead == 0)
break;
Thread.Sleep(1000);
}
}
}
}
The JoinArrays() method:
byte[] JoinArrays(byte[] arrayA, byte[] arrayB)
{
byte[] outputBytes = new byte[arrayA.Length + arrayB.Length];
Buffer.BlockCopy(arrayA, 0, outputBytes, 0, arrayA.Length);
Buffer.BlockCopy(arrayB, 0, outputBytes, arrayA.Length, arrayB.Length);
return outputBytes;
}
The safe method is to use MemoryStream wich will make sure to wait and read all the stream to the memory , then u can use it as you like
public void SaveUserTemplate(Stream stream)
{
MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream();
stream.CopyTo(memoryStream);
memoryStream.Position = 0;
byte[] templatePathLength = new byte[4];
memoryStream.Read(templatePathLength, 0, templatePathLength.Length);
int nBytesTemplatePathLength = BitConverter.ToInt32(templatePathLength,0);
....
CopyTo function finally calls to this function:
github.com/microsoft/referencesource
private void InternalCopyTo(Stream destination, int bufferSize)
{
Contract.Requires(destination != null);
Contract.Requires(CanRead);
Contract.Requires(destination.CanWrite);
Contract.Requires(bufferSize > 0);
byte[] buffer = new byte[bufferSize];
int read;
while ((read = Read(buffer, 0, buffer.Length)) != 0)
destination.Write(buffer, 0, read);
}

Sending Image through TCP

im trying to send an image through tcp, It works about 50% of the time, the other 50% is just giving me a black image and if i send 2 in the space of like 3 seconds it crashes. does anyone know why? and how i can fix this
Client:
while ((i = stream.Read(datalength, 0, 4)) != 0)
{
byte[] data = new byte[BitConverter.ToInt32(datalength, 0)];
stream.Read(data, 0, data.Length);
this.Invoke((MethodInvoker)delegate
{
try
{
Image Screenshot = byteArrayToImage(data);
pictureBox1.Image = Screenshot;
}
catch { }
});
}
This is the function which converts the byte array to image
public Image byteArrayToImage(byte[] byteArrayIn)
{
MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(byteArrayIn);
Image returnImage = Image.FromStream(ms);
return returnImage;
}
Server:
Bitmap printscreen = new Bitmap(Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Width, Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Height);
Graphics graphics = Graphics.FromImage(printscreen as Image);
graphics.CopyFromScreen(0, 0, 0, 0, printscreen.Size);
byte[] data = imageToByteArray(Image);
stream = client.GetStream();
int length = data.Length;
byte[] datalength = new byte[4];
datalength = BitConverter.GetBytes(length);
stream.Write(datalength, 0, 4);
stream.Write(data, 0, data.Length);
This is the function that converts the image to byte array
public byte[] imageToByteArray(System.Drawing.Image imageIn)
{
MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
imageIn.Save(ms, System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Gif);
return ms.ToArray();
}
You have to make sure that you read the entire "packet". It is not certain that you receive everything just because you request it. The Read() method will return how many bytes have been read, store that and loop until you've received the right amount of bytes.
Replace your current Read() with this:
int bytesReceived = 0;
while(bytesReceived < data.Length)
{
bytesReceived += stream.Read(data, bytesReceived, data.Length - bytesReceived);
}
This will read until your whole image has been received.
EDIT: Fixed a problem in code, thanks to Ivan's answer.
You're reading 1000 bytes when you should be reading four. You're reading and throwing away a large part of the image following the length word.
You're also apparently ignoring the result of read(), and assuming that it fills the buffer.

C# read all bytes

I am trying to write a simple client/server application in C#. The following is an example server reply sent to my client:
reply {20}<entry name="test"/>
where {20} indicates number of chars that full reply contains.
In the code I wrote below how can I use this number to loop and read ALL chars?
TcpClient tcpClient = new TcpClient(host, port);
NetworkStream networkStream = tcpClient.GetStream();
...
// Server Reply
if (networkStream.CanRead)
{
// Buffer to store the response bytes.
byte[] readBuffer = new byte[tcpClient.ReceiveBufferSize];
// String that will contain full server reply
StringBuilder fullServerReply = new StringBuilder();
int numberOfBytesRead = 0;
do
{
numberOfBytesRead = networkStream.Read(readBuffer, 0, readBuffer.Length);
fullServerReply.AppendFormat("{0}", Encoding.UTF8.GetString(readBuffer, 0, tcpClient.ReceiveBufferSize));
} while (networkStream.DataAvailable);
}
You're not using numberOfBytesRead. It is fascinating to me that every 2nd TCP question has this same issue as its answer.
Apart from that, you cannot split UTF-8 encoded string at arbitrary boundaries. Encoding.UTF8.GetString will return garbage. Use StreamReader.
The code is just horribly wrong. #usr already pinpointed two big mistakes.
Here is corrected code:
// Server Reply
if (networkStream.CanRead) {
// Buffer to store the response bytes.
byte[] readBuffer = new byte[tcpClient.ReceiveBufferSize];
string fullServerReply = null;
using (var writer = new MemoryStream()) {
while (networkStream.DataAvailable) {
int numberOfBytesRead = networkStream.Read(readBuffer, 0, readBuffer.Length);
if (numberOfBytesRead <= 0) {
break;
}
writer.Write(readBuffer, 0, numberOfBytesRead);
}
fullServerReply = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(writer.ToArray());
}
}

data is not fully transferred on LAN using TcpClient

I send the serialized data over LAN network but sometimes the information is lost! Process is the following:
Sender:
string mydata is being serialized
string mydata is converted to byte[] bytes_of_mydata
int size_of_mydata is the length of byte[] bytes_of_mydata
int size_of_mydata itself is turned into byte[] bytes_size_of_mydata
byte[] bytes_of_mydata and byte[] bytes_size_of_mydata are sent
Receiver:
i first receive byte[] bytes_size_of_mydata
retrieve length int size_of_mydata of the second message from byte[] bytes_size_of_mydata
i then receive byte[] bytes_of_mydata, knowing exact length!
i then convert byte[] bytes_of_mydata to string mydata
deserialize string mydata
This approach usually works in most situations, but sometimes my data is not transmitted fully, so the string can't be deserialized.
I've debugged the received byte[] on the "receiver" and here is what happens:
I get the size of second message:
int size_of_second_message = BitConverter.ToInt32(dataByteSize, 0); // 55185
I start to receive the second message to byte array:
Byte[] dataByte = new Byte[55185];
But starting from position 5840 I start to receive 0 (nulls), so the part "5840 - 55185" are all "0":
byte[5836] = 53;
byte[5837] = 57;
byte[5838] = 54;
byte[5839] = 49;
byte[5840] = 0; // information ends to flow
byte[5841] = 0;
byte[5842] = 0;
byte[5843] = 0;
//....
byte[55185] = 0;
The example from the above is taken from an actual debugger!
So what's the problem? It's like the connection is being lost during transmission!! Why is it happening and how do I counter this problem? It doesn't happen on "every-time" basis.
And here comes the code
Send:
//text_message - my original message
//Nw - network stream
MemoryStream Fs = new MemoryStream(ASCIIEncoding.Default.GetBytes(text_message));
Byte[] buffer = Fs.ToArray(); // total 55185 bytes (as in example)
Byte[] bufferSize = BitConverter.GetBytes(Fs.Length); // 32 bytes represent size
bufferSize = GetNewByteSize(bufferSize);
Nw.Write(bufferSize, 0, bufferSize.Length); // send size
Nw.Flush();
Nw.Write(buffer, 0, buffer.Length); // send message
Nw.Flush();
Receive:
//get first(SIZE) bytes:
int ReadSize = 0; int maxSize = 32; // 32 - constant!
Byte[] dataByteSize = new Byte[maxSize];
int origsize;
using (var strm = new MemoryStream())
{
ReadSize = Nw.Read(dataByteSize, 0, maxSize);
strm.Write(dataByteSize, 0, ReadSize);
strm.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
origsize = BitConverter.ToInt32(dataByteSize, 0); // origsize = 55185
}
Nw.Flush();
//get next(MESSAGE) bytes:
string message = ""; int thisRead = 0;
int max = Convert.ToInt32(origsize); // origsize = 55185
Byte[] dataByte = new Byte[max];
using (var strm = new MemoryStream())
{
thisRead = Nw.Read(dataByte, 0, max);
strm.Write(dataByte, 0, thisRead);
strm.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(strm))
{
message = reader.ReadToEnd();
}
}
Nw.Flush();
// message - the message that is being transmitted partly (sometimes)!
I didn't want to post the code but you guys usually ask "show us what you've done", so here it is!
Edit
Temporary fix is to switch to StreamWriter, reader.
Receive + send (server):
NetworkStream Nw = new NetworkStream(handlerSocket.Client);
string toreceive = "";
StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(Nw);
toreceive = reader.ReadLine();
string text_message = "to send back";
StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(Nw);
writer.WriteLine(text_message);
writer.Flush();
Nw.Close();
Send + receive (client):
NetworkStream Nw = new NetworkStream(handlerSocket.Client);
StreamWriter writer = new StreamWriter(Nw);
writer.WriteLine("to send");
writer.Flush();
string toreceive = new StreamReader(Nw).ReadLine();
writer.Close();
Nw.Close();
I'm looking for a solution regarding original problem, but so far everything is working due to temporary fix.
TCP is a stream based protocol which lets you read as much data has yet been received. Just because you send data in one step, there is no guarantee that the data will be received in the same block. You have to loop on the receiving side until you have received all the data you anticipate.
By the way I think that your protocol with an explicit length field at the start is really good, it makes up for simple client code (as simple as it gets at least).
Some time back I asked a question on built in functionality to wait until X bytes of data is available: .NET blocking socket read until X bytes are available?. The answer is unfortunately no.

Categories