Streaming large files over network

[A.M-SG]

Hi,

I have a ASP.NET aspx file that needs to pass large images from a network
storage to client browser. The requirement is that users cannot have access
to the network share. The aspx file must be the only method that users
receive image files.

Essentially, the aspx file is an intermediate between client browser and a
network share.

I don't want to load all file in my web server memory as a byte[] array and
then stream it to the browser.

Is there any way (or streaming techniques) that I can stream large file
directly from storage to the browser?

Any help would be appreciated,

Alan

[Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]]

Alan,

Over an ASPX page, you could open the file in a file stream and read
chunks of a file at a time and then write those chunks to the output stream.

Also, you might want to look into the Web Service Extensions and expose
a web service which will send this stuff back using MTOM. It will probably
suit your needs as well.

Hope this helps.
--
- Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]
- mv*@spam.guard.caspershouse.com

"A.M-SG" <al******@newsgroup.nospam> wrote in message
news:ui****************@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...

Hi,

I have a ASP.NET aspx file that needs to pass large images from a network
storage to client browser. The requirement is that users cannot have
access to the network share. The aspx file must be the only method that
users receive image files.

Essentially, the aspx file is an intermediate between client browser and a
network share.

I don't want to load all file in my web server memory as a byte[] array
and then stream it to the browser.

Is there any way (or streaming techniques) that I can stream large file
directly from storage to the browser?

Any help would be appreciated,

Alan

[William Stacey [MVP]]

> Also, you might want to look into the Web Service Extensions and expose

a web service which will send this stuff back using MTOM. It will
probably suit your needs as well.

Unfortunatly, MTOM is still not good for steaming. The client side still
can not stream and must load the whole msg in memory before writing it out.
It also internally converts the bytes to base64 to "normalize" the msg
(which I do not fully understand why). Any MTOM advantage is still lost on
me at this point.

--
William Stacey [MVP]

[Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]]

True, but the OP indicated that he was concerned about the memory
consumption on the server. He wanted to avoid loading the file as one large
byte array, and write to the stream.

While I agree that MTOM isn't good for streaming on the client side (as
a matter of fact, it is not good for streaming at all on the client side),
the WSE extensions might not load the whole payload at once, and then send
it down.
--
- Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]
- mv*@spam.guard.caspershouse.com

"William Stacey [MVP]" <wi************@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:Of**************@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...

Also, you might want to look into the Web Service Extensions and
expose a web service which will send this stuff back using MTOM. It will
probably suit your needs as well.

Unfortunatly, MTOM is still not good for steaming. The client side still
can not stream and must load the whole msg in memory before writing it
out.
It also internally converts the bytes to base64 to "normalize" the msg
(which I do not fully understand why). Any MTOM advantage is still lost
on me at this point.

--
William Stacey [MVP]

[William Stacey [MVP]]

> True, but the OP indicated that he was concerned about the memory

consumption on the server. He wanted to avoid loading the file as one
large byte array, and write to the stream.

True, but your just moving the memory issue to client for very large files.
You could crash the client or make it swap like crazy. So a streaming
solution on both ends may be a better solution. 1-50MB may be ok for some
clients, but not others, so what number is too big for all clients?

--
William Stacey [MVP]