Object to binary[] from COM in .NET using C#

[A. Gharbeia]

Greetings:
It turned out that using COM objects from .NET C# isn't straight forward at
all.
Now, I have successfully used reflection to instantiate the object, and
invoked the methods and properties through Type.InvokeMemb er, but...

One property whose value I retrieve through :

TImagingObject. InvokeMember("J PGData", BindingFlags.Ge tProperty, null,
certificateImag e, null);

returns an Object.

Now how can I obtain a byte[] out of this returned Object to pass it to
Response.Write? !
I can't cast into an array, of course, and I can't find the right methods to
access the binary data and instantiate an array with it.

Sincerely,
A. Gharbeia

[Mattias Sjögren]

Now how can I obtain a byte[] out of this returned Object to pass it to
Response.Write ?!
I can't cast into an array, of course,

Why not? What's the actual type of the returned object
(obj.GetType(). ToString())?

Mattias

--
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[A. Gharbeia]

Thank you for your response, Mattias.

Using .GetType().ToSt ring() directly on the reference returned by System.Type.Inv okeMember() (i.e. without first assigning it to an object), returns System.Byte[*].

However, passing this reference also directly to "Response.Binar yWrite()" (i.e. by placing the whole InvokeMember call within the parentheses), yields:

Compiler Error Message: CS1502: The best overloaded method match for 'System.Web.Htt pResponse.Binar yWrite(byte[])' has some invalid arguments

I also tried assigning the reference to an Object object and using System.Convert. ChangeType(obje ct, invocation.GetT ype()) to convert object to the type returned by the invocation and do InvokeMember() once more, this time assigning the returned reference to object. And I got the same error!!
"Mattias Sjögren" <ma************ ********@mvps.o rg> wrote in message news:%2******** ********@TK2MSF TNGP11.phx.gbl. ..

Now how can I obtain a byte[] out of this returned Object to pass it to
Response.Write ?!
I can't cast into an array, of course,

Why not? What's the actual type of the returned object
(obj.GetType(). ToString())?



Mattias

--
Mattias Sjögren [MVP] mattias @ mvps.org
http://www.msjogren.net/dotnet/ | http://www.dotnetinterop.com
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[A. Gharbeia]

One more thing:
Doing the whole thing in JScript.NET is much easier and straighforward,
since calling the COM methods doesn't neccessate using Type.InvokeMemb er.
However, attempting to output the result to the HTTP stream using
Response.Binary Write yields a similar error:

System.InvalidC astException: Specified cast is not valid.

A. Gharbeia

"A. Gharbeia" <ah***@heia.org > wrote in message
news:uC******** ******@tk2msftn gp13.phx.gbl...
Thank you for your response, Mattias.

Using .GetType().ToSt ring() directly on the reference returned by
System.Type.Inv okeMember() (i.e. without first assigning it to an object),
returns System.Byte[*].

However, passing this reference also directly to "Response.Binar yWrite()"
(i.e. by placing the whole InvokeMember call within the parentheses),
yields:

Compiler Error Message: CS1502: The best overloaded method match for
'System.Web.Htt pResponse.Binar yWrite(byte[])' has some invalid arguments

I also tried assigning the reference to an Object object and using
System.Convert. ChangeType(obje ct, invocation.GetT ype()) to convert object to
the type returned by the invocation and do InvokeMember() once more, this
time assigning the returned reference to object. And I got the same error!!
"Mattias Sjögren" <ma************ ********@mvps.o rg> wrote in message
news:%2******** ********@TK2MSF TNGP11.phx.gbl. ..

Now how can I obtain a byte[] out of this returned Object to pass it to
Response.Write ?!
I can't cast into an array, of course,

Why not? What's the actual type of the returned object
(obj.GetType(). ToString())?

Mattias

--
Mattias Sjögren [MVP] mattias @ mvps.org
http://www.msjogren.net/dotnet/ | http://www.dotnetinterop.com
Please reply only to the newsgroup.

[Mattias Sjögren]

Using .GetType().ToSt ring() directly on the reference returned by System.Type.Inv okeMember() (i.e. without first assigning it to an object), returns System.Byte[*].

In that case you should be able to cast it to System.Array and access
the array items with Array.GetValue( ).

Mattias

--
Mattias Sjögren [MVP] mattias @ mvps.org
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[A. Gharbeia]

Yes.
But this will mean I will have to access the Array elements one by one!
Then what?

"Mattias Sjögren" <ma************ ********@mvps.o rg> wrote in message
news:Oc******** ******@TK2MSFTN GP10.phx.gbl...

Using .GetType().ToSt ring() directly on the reference returned by

System.Type.Inv okeMember() (i.e. without first assigning it to an object),
returns System.Byte[*].
In that case you should be able to cast it to System.Array and access
the array items with Array.GetValue( ).

Mattias

--
Mattias Sjögren [MVP] mattias @ mvps.org
http://www.msjogren.net/dotnet/ | http://www.dotnetinterop.com
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[A. Gharbeia]

I tried:

Object o = ImagingComponen t.InvokeMember( "JPGData",
BindingFlags.Ge tProperty, null, certificateImag e, null);
Array b = Array.CreateIns tance(typeof(by te), ((Array)o).Long Length);
b.CopyTo(b, 0);
Response.Binary Write(b);

and got the same compiler error:

CS1502: The best overloaded method match for
'System.Web.Htt pResponse.Binar yWrite(byte[])' has some invalid arguments
"Mattias Sjögren" <ma************ ********@mvps.o rg> wrote in message
news:Oc******** ******@TK2MSFTN GP10.phx.gbl...

Using .GetType().ToSt ring() directly on the reference returned by

System.Type.Inv okeMember() (i.e. without first assigning it to an object),
returns System.Byte[*].
In that case you should be able to cast it to System.Array and access
the array items with Array.GetValue( ).

Mattias

--
Mattias Sjögren [MVP] mattias @ mvps.org
http://www.msjogren.net/dotnet/ | http://www.dotnetinterop.com
Please reply only to the newsgroup.

[Mattias Sjögren]

Yes.
But this will mean I will have to access the Array elements one by one!
Then what?

Not necessarily, you should be able to copy the contents over to a
regular byte[] using Buffer.BlockCop y().

Mattias

--
Mattias Sjögren [MVP] mattias @ mvps.org
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[A. Gharbeia]

Although I don't know how to create a byte[] with a dynamic size (that will
only be known at runtime), I tried:

Object r = ImaginCOM.Invok eMember("JPGDat a", BindingFlags.Ge tProperty,
null, certificateImag e, null);
byte[] b;
Buffer.BlockCop y( ((Array)r), 0, b, 0, ((Array)r).Leng th );

and got:

CS0154: The property or indexer 'System.Web.UI. Page.Buffer' cannot be used
in this context because it lacks the get accessor

I'm trying this and other tricks with JScript.NET in addition to C#. I with
I could find a solution in JScript.NET, as the code there is much cleaner. I
tried to play on the JScript Array/.NET System.Array duality but reached no
where either.

"Mattias Sjögren" <ma************ ********@mvps.o rg> wrote in message
news:eM******** ******@TK2MSFTN GP09.phx.gbl...

Yes.
But this will mean I will have to access the Array elements one by one!
Then what?

Not necessarily, you should be able to copy the contents over to a
regular byte[] using Buffer.BlockCop y().

Mattias

--
Mattias Sjögren [MVP] mattias @ mvps.org
http://www.msjogren.net/dotnet/ | http://www.dotnetinterop.com
Please reply only to the newsgroup.

[A. Gharbeia]

Although I don't know how to create a byte[] with a dynamic size (that will
only be known at runtime), I tried:

Object r = ImaginCOM.Invok eMember("JPGDat a", BindingFlags.Ge tProperty,
null, certificateImag e, null);
byte[] b;
Buffer.BlockCop y( ((Array)r), 0, b, 0, ((Array)r).Leng th );

and got:

CS0154: The property or indexer 'System.Web.UI. Page.Buffer' cannot be used
in this context because it lacks the get accessor

I'm trying this and other tricks with JScript.NET in addition to C#. I with
I could find a solution in JScript.NET, as the code there is much cleaner. I
tried to play on the JScript Array/.NET System.Array duality but reached no
where either.

What do you think?

A. Gharbeia

"Mattias Sjögren" <ma************ ********@mvps.o rg> wrote in message
news:eM******** ******@TK2MSFTN GP09.phx.gbl...

Yes.
But this will mean I will have to access the Array elements one by one!
Then what?

Not necessarily, you should be able to copy the contents over to a
regular byte[] using Buffer.BlockCop y().

Mattias

--
Mattias Sjögren [MVP] mattias @ mvps.org
http://www.msjogren.net/dotnet/ | http://www.dotnetinterop.com
Please reply only to the newsgroup.