print imagedata from string variable

[Henri Schomäcker]

Hi folks,

I got a windows com executable which returns a jpg image in a BSTR.

Let's say, the var that holds the data is $imgData.

With perl, in a cgi script, I may simpy write:
8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------
$| = 1;
print "Content-type: image/jpeg\n\n";
binmode(STDOUT) ;
print $imgData;
8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------
and the Image is propperly printed to the Client-Browser.

Now I want to achieve the same with php, but I just can't find a way to
treat the data as binary instead of a formated string.
As far as I know, echo $imgData shouldn't expect a formated string, as print
does.

(I know, returning a Safearray from the com executable would be a better way
and probably I will also do it that way, but at the moment, I'm trying to
solve this problem.)

It'll make me very happy if someone could give me a hint...

Many thanks in advance,
yours Henri

[Virgil Green]

"Henri Schomäcker" <hs@byteconcept s.de> wrote in message
news:cd******** *****@news.t-online.com...

Hi folks,

I got a windows com executable which returns a jpg image in a BSTR.

Let's say, the var that holds the data is $imgData.

With perl, in a cgi script, I may simpy write:
8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------
$| = 1;
print "Content-type: image/jpeg\n\n";
binmode(STDOUT) ;
print $imgData;
8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------
and the Image is propperly printed to the Client-Browser.

Now I want to achieve the same with php, but I just can't find a way to
treat the data as binary instead of a formated string.
As far as I know, echo $imgData shouldn't expect a formated string, as print does.

(I know, returning a Safearray from the com executable would be a better way and probably I will also do it that way, but at the moment, I'm trying to
solve this problem.)

www.php.net/imagecreatefromstring
www.php.net/imagejpeg

though I haven't done it from a string before.

- Virgil

[Andy Hassall]

On Fri, 16 Jul 2004 19:18:42 +0200, Henri Schomäcker <hs@byteconcept s.de>
wrote:

I got a windows com executable which returns a jpg image in a BSTR.

Let's say, the var that holds the data is $imgData.

With perl, in a cgi script, I may simpy write:
8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------
$| = 1;
print "Content-type: image/jpeg\n\n";
binmode(STDOUT );
print $imgData;
8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------
and the Image is propperly printed to the Client-Browser.

Now I want to achieve the same with php, but I just can't find a way to
treat the data as binary instead of a formated string.
As far as I know, echo $imgData shouldn't expect a formated string, as print
does.

I don't know what you mean by a "formated string" with regards to print.
You can print binary data without any special treatment.

(If you've opened a filehandle and are outputting to that, you have to open it
with 'b' in the open mode, but output to the browser is binary-safe by
default).

So it becomes just:

<?php
// magic to get $imgData = a jpeg
header('Content-type: image/jpeg');
print $imgData;
?>

--
Andy Hassall <an**@andyh.co. uk> / Space: disk usage analysis tool
http://www.andyh.co.uk / http://www.andyhsoftware.co.uk/space

[Henri Schomäcker]

> Andy Hassall wrote:

I don't know what you mean by a "formated string" with regards to print.
You can print binary data without any special treatment.

(If you've opened a filehandle and are outputting to that, you have to
open it
with 'b' in the open mode, but output to the browser is binary-safe by
default).

So it becomes just:

<?php
// magic to get $imgData = a jpeg
header('Content-type: image/jpeg');
print $imgData;
?>

--
Andy Hassall <an**@andyh.co. uk> / Space: disk usage analysis tool
http://www.andyh.co.uk / http://www.andyhsoftware.co.uk/space

;-) Yes, this is exactly what I mean, but it does NOT work.
It should be typeless, but it seems it isn't because it just recognices the
data until the first 0 like a 0 terminated string and that wouldn't be
typeless.

As I wrote, It works with perl, which really handles the data typeless, but
when I recieve the Imagedata with php, php handles the received data like
vbscript as a BSTR type, which really is send by the com object.

Here's how I get the data with php, perhapst I should do this another way?
8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------
$comObj = new COM("mytools.My Method") or Die ("Failed to connect to Com");
$imgData['img'] = $comObj->getImage() or Die ("Couldn't get data from
Object");
8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------

Many thanks for the replys,
yours Henri

[Henri Schomäcker]

Oops, sorry I have to make a correction,

By mistake, I copied another try but the correct code I used is:
8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------
$imgData = $comObj->getImage() or Die ("Couldn't get data from Object");
8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------

Many thanks for the replys,
yours Henri

[Andy Hassall]

On Sat, 17 Jul 2004 13:32:15 +0200, Henri Schomäcker <hs@byteconcept s.de>
wrote:

Andy Hassall wrote:
I don't know what you mean by a "formated string" with regards to print.
You can print binary data without any special treatment.

(If you've opened a filehandle and are outputting to that, you have to
open it
with 'b' in the open mode, but output to the browser is binary-safe by
default).

So it becomes just:

<?php
// magic to get $imgData = a jpeg
header('Content-type: image/jpeg');
print $imgData;
?>

;-) Yes, this is exactly what I mean, but it does NOT work.
It should be typeless, but it seems it isn't because it just recognices the
data until the first 0 like a 0 terminated string and that wouldn't be
typeless.

As I wrote, It works with perl, which really handles the data typeless, but
when I recieve the Imagedata with php, php handles the received data like
vbscript as a BSTR type, which really is send by the com object.

Here's how I get the data with php, perhapst I should do this another way?
8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------
$comObj = new COM("mytools.My Method") or Die ("Failed to connect to Com");
$imgData['img'] = $comObj->getImage() or Die ("Couldn't get data from
Object");
8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------

It's sounding like it's not a core PHP problem (since PHP strings and print
can definitely handle binary data containing NUL bytes), but rather a problem
somewhere in the COM extension that's stopping the full data reaching the PHP
variable. I've not used the COM extension myself so can't suggest much more on
that. Perhaps try http://bugs.php.net ?

--
Andy Hassall <an**@andyh.co. uk> / Space: disk usage analysis tool
http://www.andyh.co.uk / http://www.andyhsoftware.co.uk/space

[Henri Schomäcker]

> Virgil Green wrote:

www.php.net/imagecreatefromstring
www.php.net/imagejpeg

though I haven't done it from a string before.

- Virgil

Thanks, but these functions are non-standart extensions that are part of the
gd extension in php, which I don't want to use because the imagedata is
already returned correctly by the com object.

But anyway, thanks for the reply,
yours Henri

[Henri Schomäcker]

>> On Sat, 17 Jul 2004 13:32:15 +0200, Henri Schomäcker wrote:

As I wrote, It works with perl, which really handles the data typeless,
but when I recieve the Imagedata with php, php handles the received data
like vbscript as a BSTR type, which really is send by the com object.

Here's how I get the data with php, perhapst I should do this another way?
8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------
$comObj = new COM("mytools.My Method") or Die ("Failed to connect to Com");
$imgData = $comObj->getImage() or Die ("Couldn't get data from Object");
8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------8<--------

Andy Hassall wrote:

It's sounding like it's not a core PHP problem (since PHP strings and
print
can definitely handle binary data containing NUL bytes), but rather a
problem somewhere in the COM extension that's stopping the full data
reaching the PHP variable. I've not used the COM extension myself so can't
suggest much more on that. Perhaps try http://bugs.php.net ?

--
Andy Hassall <an**@andyh.co. uk> / Space: disk usage analysis tool
http://www.andyh.co.uk / http://www.andyhsoftware.co.uk/space

Seems you're right. I also tried to set a Variant type of $imgData to VT_UI1
before, but it had no effect.

I also searched http://bugs.php.net but couldn't find a bug related to my
problem. It also seems that not many developers really use com with php
which makes searching for a solution really hard.

I think I'll give up and use the time to recode the com component to return
a Safearray so using it with other languages than perl will be made easier.

Many thanks for all your answers,
yours Henri