GZip Compression :(

[Carlo Razzeto]

Hello there,

I'm having an odd issue with GZIP compression (having followed example code
found on MSDN). Basically, after running through the compression routine I
end up with a byte array several times larger than the source text file,
full of zero data. Below is the code used to do the compression, it's a part
of a web service to retreive a file, there's a compress option prior to
base64 encoding the data. In the following code all undeclared variables you
see are properties, compress repersents a compress attribute specified in
the xml request, FileName is a relitive path to the file on the server
inside the webroot.

Response.ContentType = "text/xml"
If Not File.Exists(Server.MapPath(FileName)) Then
Throw New GetBinaryFileException(FileName,
GetBinaryFileException.GetBinaryFileError.FileNotFound)
End If

Dim FileData() As Byte = Nothing
Dim FStream As New FileStream(Server.MapPath(FileName),
FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.ReadWrite)
If Compress Then
Dim TempData(FStream.Length - 1) As Byte
FStream.Read(TempData, 0, FStream.Length)
Dim MStream As New MemoryStream
Dim Compressor As New GZipStream(MStream,
CompressionMode.Compress, True)
Compressor.Write(TempData, 0, TempData.Length)

ReDim FileData(MStream.Length - 1)
Dim BytesRead As Integer = MStream.Read(FileData, 0,
MStream.Length)
MStream.Close()
MStream.Dispose()
Compressor.Close()
Compressor.Dispose()
Else
ReDim FileData(FStream.Length - 1)
FStream.Read(FileData, 0, FStream.Length)
End If
FStream.Close()
FStream.Dispose()

Dim Base64 As String = Convert.ToBase64String(FileData)

Dim FileDataNode As XmlNode =
XmlExchangeLib.GetOrSetXmlNode("FileData", Root)
XmlExchangeLib.AddAttributeWithValue(FileDataNode, "Compressed",
Compress.ToString().ToLower())
FileDataNode.InnerText = Base64
XmlResponse.Save(Response.OutputStream)

 

[Cowboy \(Gregory A. Beamer\)]

Look at these lines:

Dim TempData(FStream.Length - 1) As Byte
Compressor.Write(TempData, 0, TempData.Length)

You are asking the compressor to write TempData, but at the full length of
TempData, which is the length of the original file. Nothing wrong here,
necessarily, as you are writing to a MemoryStream, but you will have to get
rid of the end bits before writing to a file.

Personally, rather than tackle this, I would look at:
http://www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SharpZipLib/

That lib is open source, stable, and encapsulates zip, gzip and bzip very
well.

--
Gregory A. Beamer
MVP, MCP: +I, SE, SD, DBA

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