Question

VB.NET 3.5: how to copy an embedded resource to a file

Asked by: MaffooClock

I've been struggling with what I thought would be fairly simple, and that is to copy an embedded binary file to a location on the hard disk.  Attached are two solutions I've tried, but they both error out on "NullReferenceException was unhandled".

Googling returns some examples, even from EE, but none work or they aren't quite what I'm looking for.  I'm not good at reading bytes and trying to write them somewhere -- I usually get my types mixed up and cant seem to get data from one place to another.

 ''' FIRST ATTEMPT
 Dim sWriter As Stream = (Me.GetType().Assembly.GetManifestResourceStream("foo"))
 Dim x As Integer
 Dim fFile As New FileStream("bar.ext", FileMode.OpenOrCreate)
 For x = 1 To sWriter.Length
     fFile.WriteByte(sWriter.ReadByte)
 Next
 fFile.Close()
 
 
 
 ''' SECOND ATTEMPT
 'Open the Embeded resource
 Dim resourceStream As IO.Stream = Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().GetManifestResourceStream("Foo")
 
 'Open FileStream to write out to
 Dim writer As New IO.FileStream("bar.ext", IO.FileMode.Create, IO.FileAccess.Write)
 
 
 'Write out all bytes of the stream
 Const size As Int16 = 4096
 Dim buffer(size) As Byte
 Dim numBytes As Int32 = 0
 
 Do
     numBytes = resourceStream.Read(buffer, 0, size)
 
     writer.Write(buffer, 0, numBytes)
 
 Loop While (numBytes > 0)
 
 
 'Close both streams and clean up
 resourceStream.Close()
 resourceStream.Dispose()
 
 writer.Close()
 writer.Dispose()
                                  
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:
7:
8:
9:
10:
11:
12:
13:
14:
15:
16:
17:
18:
19:
20:
21:
22:
23:
24:
25:
26:
27:
28:
29:
30:
31:
32:
33:
34:
35:
36:
37:
38:

Select allOpen in new window

This Question has been solved and asker verified All Experts Exchange premium technology solutions are available to subscription members.

Subscribe now for full access to Experts Exchange and get

Instant Access to this Solution

  • Plus...
  • 30 Day FREE access, no risk, no obligation
  • Collaborate with the world's top tech experts
  • Unlimited access to our exclusive solution database
  • Never be left without tech help again

Subscribe Now

Asked On
2009-11-03 at 12:12:14ID24868612
Topics

Microsoft Visual Basic.Net

,

.Net Editors & IDEs

,

.NET Framework 3.x versions

Participating Experts
2
Points
500
Comments
12

Trusted by hundreds of thousands everyday for fast, accurate and reliable tech support.

  • "The time we save is the biggest benefit of Experts Exchange to Warner Bros. What could take multiple guys 2 hours or more each to find is accessed in around 15 minutes on Experts Exchange." Mike Kapnisakis, Warner Bros.
  • "Our team likes having a resource that is more secure than just using Google and most experts using this service really know their stuff. It's nice to look here first versus using Google." Dayna Sellner, Lockheed Martin
  • "Anytime that I've been stumped with a problem, 9 out of 10 times Experts Exchange has either the accepted solution or an open discussion of the potential solution to the problem." Kenny Red, eBay Inc.

See what Experts Exchange can do for you.

Got a question?

We've got the answer.

Experts Exchange has been collecting answers to technology questions since 1996…3 million and counting! If you have a question, chances are we already have your answer.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Need individual assistance?

Our experts are ready to help.

If you can't find the exact answer you're looking for, ask our exclusive community of 50,000 experts. You’ll get a personalized answer from a trusted professional.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Want to learn from the best?

Read articles from industry experts.

Thousands of free tech tips, tricks, how-to’s and tutorials are available in our peer reviewed articles section. See for yourself how smart our experts are, no login required.

Screenshot of an Article

Working on a long term project?

Store your work and research.

Save solutions to your questions, answers you’ve discovered through searching plus helpful articles in your personal knowledgebase for easy future access.

Screenshot of Experts Exchange Knowledgebase

Access the answers to your technology questions today.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

What Makes Experts Exchange Unique?

Members of the expert community talk about why the experience at Experts Exchange is different than what you will find anywhere else.

Trusted by the world's most respected brands.

image of each brand's logo

Faithfully serving IT professionals since 1996.

Experts Exchange Logo

Try it out and discover for yourself.

Subscribe Now

30-day free trial. Register in 60 seconds.

Related Solutions

  1. Embed binary data in VB project
    I have a VB project which will compile and make a single EXE (This project not expected to contain other files, for instance, data files) I need to embed some binary data in that EXE, because that EXE will copy its binary data to a file during running. My question: "...
  2. Need to embed font for VB.NET application
    I'm working with several other developers on a VB.NET Windows app. We have found that those of us with an "older" version of the tahoma.ttf font file are getting some strange behavior in a column of right-aligned labels. Instead of being right-aligned, yet they ar...
  3. How To Embed and Automate Word Documents with VB.NET
    How do I embed and automate Word Documents in VB.Net? I am new to VB.Net and need to open a document(s), allow the user to make modifications, then save and close programatically. Thanks, Joe
  4. Embed and Application in Vb.NET
    Is there a way to launch an external process, say notepad or something and then embed that process as an embeded object on a form or panel?

Free Tech Articles

  1. WARNING: 5 Reasons why you should NEVER fix a computer for free.
    It is in our nature to love the puzzle. We are obsessed. The lot of us. We love puzzles. We love the challenge. We thrive on finding the answer. We hate disarray. It bothers us deep in our soul. W...
  2. SCCM OSD Basic troubleshooting
    SCCM 2007 OSD is a fantastic way to deploy operating systems, however, like most things SCCM issues can sometimes be difficult to resolve due to the sheer volume of logs to sift through and the dispe...
  3. Migrate Small Business Server 2003 to Exchange 2010 and Windows 2008 R2
    This guide is intended to provide step by step instructions on how to migrate from Small Business Server 2003 to Windows 2008 R2 with Exchange 2010. For this migration to work you will need the fo...
  4. Create a Win7 Gadget
    This article shows you how to create a simple "Gadget" -- a sort of mini-application supported by Windows 7 and Vista. Gadgets can be dropped anywhere on the desktop to provide instant information, ...
  5. Outlook continually prompting for username and password
    There have been a lot of questions recently regarding Outlook prompting for a username and password whilst using Exchange 2007. There are a few reasons why this would happen and I will try to cover t...
  6. Backup Exchange 2010 Information Store using Windows Backup
    There seems to be quite a lot of confusion around the ability to backup Exchange 2010 using the built in Windows Backup feature. This stems from the omission of this feature prior to Exchange 2007 s...

Cloud Class Webinars

  1. Avoiding Bugs in Microsoft Access
    Alison Balter takes and in-depth look at avoiding bugs in Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the immediate window to debug your applications, invoking the debugger, using breakpoints to troubleshoot, stepping through code, setting the next statement to execute, ...
  2. Top 10 Best New Features in Visio 2010
    Scott Helmers gives live demonstrations of the top 10 new features in Visio 2010. This webinar will teach you how to create compelling diagrams by adding shapes to the page with a single click, linking the shapes in a diagram to data in Excel (or SQL Server, or SharePoint), ...
  3. IT Consultant Business Secrets Revealed
    Michael Munger, Experts Exchange tech pro and IT consultant, pulls back the curtain on his very successful businesses and answers question on every IT consultant and business owner should know about. He shares secrets on what he did to solve the 5 most common problems in IT, ...
  4. Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity
    Quest CTO, Mike Billon, gives an overview of the steps involved in building a dunamic disaster recovery plan. Through case studies and an examination of software/hardware tooles for monitoring and testing, you'll gain a better understandin of where you are, where you want ...
  5. Organize Your Visio Diagrams with Containers and Lists
    Scott Helmers uses cross functional flowcharts, wireframe diagrams, data graphic legends and seating charts to teach you: how to ustilize all three new structured diagram components in Visio 2010, the best practices for organizeing shapes in previous version of Visio, how to organize ...
  6. How to Us Objects, Properties, Events and Methods in Microsoft Access
    Alison Dalter gives an in-depbth look at objects, properties, events and methods in Microsoft Access. In this webinar you will learn about using the object browser, referring to objects, working with properties and methods, working with object variables, understanding the ...

Join the Community

Give a Little. Get a Lot.

Join the community of experts here and help other tech pros by answering question in your area of expertise. You can earn FREE access to all Experts Exchange's premium features and resources.

Join the Community

Answers

 

by: Omego2KPosted on 2009-11-03 at 12:30:22ID: 25733239

why aren't you using your stream object: resourceStream ?

 

by: mikeadaPosted on 2009-11-03 at 12:30:31ID: 25733243

Looks like it's the name of your resource stream that's causing a problem.  You're not referencing it right.  It's more like "namespace.bar.ext"

If you have a file attached directly to the project (i.e. not in a project subfolder) then set the BuildAction of that file to Embedded Resource, then the resource reference will be the Default Namespace (as specified in the properties of the project under the Application tab) then "." file name.

An example below of working code as I did not fully check over your code but it looked ok at a quick glance.

   Dim buffersize As Integer = 4096
    Dim s As Stream = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly.GetManifestResourceStream("Namespace.filename.txt")
    Dim fs As FileStream = File.OpenWrite(PathToSave)
    Dim buffer As Byte() = New Byte(buffersize  - 1) {}
    Dim read As Integer = 0
    Do While (read = s.Read(buffer, 0, buffersize) > 0)
        fs.Write(buffer, 0, read)
    Loop
    s.Close
    fs.Close
                                              
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:
7:
8:
9:
10:

Select allOpen in new window

 

by: MaffooClockPosted on 2009-11-03 at 12:45:49ID: 25733399

Thanks, mikeada.  I think your version is very close to what I want, but it errors out the same as all my other attempts: "Object reference not set to an instance of an object.", with line 6 being highlighted.  No matter what I try, that's alway the only error I ever get.

By the way, the resource is named "FooBar.ext", and is it stored inside the "Reources" folder within my solution and set as "Embedded Resource" and "Do Not Copy".  When viewing the application properties on the Resources tab, the resource exists as a binary file, named "FooBar".

 

by: Omego2KPosted on 2009-11-03 at 12:54:31ID: 25733496

Can you post your new code?

 

by: MaffooClockPosted on 2009-11-03 at 13:16:34ID: 25733768

I think the problem is that I always get a null when trying to read the embedded resource.

 Dim ExecutingAssembly As System.Reflection.Assembly = Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly()
 Dim MyNamespace As String = ExecutingAssembly.GetName().Name.ToString()
 
 Dim s As Stream = ExecutingAssembly.GetManifestResourceStream(MyNamespace & ".Resources.FooBar.ext")
 If s Is Nothing Then
     MsgBox("Crap")
 Else
     ...

                                              
1:
2:
3:
4:
5:
6:
7:
8:

Select allOpen in new window

 

by: Omego2KPosted on 2009-11-03 at 13:24:47ID: 25733895

Where in your solution is the FooBar.ext file in? Is it in any folders?

 

by: MaffooClockPosted on 2009-11-03 at 13:25:57ID: 25733914

Yes, a folder called "Resources".  I have checked and double-checked that it is set as "Embedded Resource".

 

by: mikeadaPosted on 2009-11-03 at 13:28:21ID: 25733948

Yeah I still think it's the name of the resource.  That value for MyNamespace might be giving  you the full assembly name.  You need to use the Defaultnamespace instead.

 

by: MaffooClockPosted on 2009-11-03 at 13:53:35ID: 25734210

Well, in a desparate move, I deleted all traces of the embedded resource from this universe completely.  Then, I created a new one, but in a different location, and adjuste the GetManifestResourceStream() accordingly, and it worked.  So something is funny.

However, the filesize was about half of what I expected and it was corrupt.  Now I need to get back to focusing on the Read/Write.

 

by: MaffooClockPosted on 2009-11-03 at 14:44:20ID: 25734685

As I mentioned in my last comment, using the snippet from mikeada (comment #25733243), the file was being written but it was incomplete and therefore corrupt.  So I went back to my first attempt (from my original question), and now everything is working fine.

mikeada: do you think you can identify the flaw in your snippet that is causing my file to be incomplete?  I'm not able to.  I would rather use your snippet since it would be faster than mine which only reads/writes one byte at a time.

 

by: mikeadaPosted on 2009-11-03 at 15:25:26ID: 25735027

Yeah, for some reason that read statement doesn't work good in that dowhile loop in vb.net, works fine in c#, change to this:

Dim read As Integer = s.Read(buffer, 0, buffersize)
Do While (read > 0)
            fs.Write(buffer, 0, read)
            read = s.Read(buffer, 0, buffersize)
Loop

 

by: MaffooClockPosted on 2009-11-03 at 16:07:52ID: 31649626

Although I figured out the root of my problem myself, mikeada helped me reach my ultimate goal.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

3 Ways to Join

30-Day Free Trial

The Experts

98% positive feedback on 31,087 answers since March 2000. angeliii is a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional for his work with MS SQL Server & Develoment.

He has also proven his knowledge of Visual Basic Programming, PHP Scripting and Oracle Databases.

The Experts

97% positive feedback on 10,752 answers since July 2000. lrmoore has more than 18 years experience in the networking industry.

The six-time Mircosoft MVPs specialties include firewalls, virtual private networking, and network management.

Testimonials

"...and excellent source for support... Kind of like having your very own IT dept." Electriciansnet

Testimonials

"I was apprehensive at signing up at first. However... it has already made my life as an IT administrator much easier." JaCrews

Testimonials

"WOW! You guys have great, active, and knowledgeable people on here." moore50

Business Clients

Business Clients

In the Press

"If you’ve got a question... Experts Exchange can supply an answer.”

In the Press

"...an invaluable aid for both IT professionals and those who require tech support."

In the Press

"where IT professionals provide quick answers on just about any topic"

Business Account Plans

Loading Advertisement...