stuck with streaming file to string - delphi

Question

okay, so I (VERY) recently started playing with lazaruz/free pascal, and I'm a little stuck with reading files with TMemoryStream and it's streaming kin.
I'm trying to write a simple base64 encoder, that can encode strings of text, or files (like images and WAVs) to then be used in html and javascript.
The following code compiles great but I get EReadError Illegal stream image when trying to load a file. I'll include the working string only procedure for reference:
procedure TForm1.TextStringChange(Sender: TObject);
begin
Memo1.Lines.Text := EncodeStringBase64(TextString.Text);
end;
procedure TForm1.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
begin
Memo1.Lines.Text := '';
Form1.BorderIcons := [biSystemMenu,biMinimize];
end;
procedure TForm1.BitBtn1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
if OpenDialog1.Execute then
begin
filename := OpenDialog1.Filename;
stream := TMemoryStream.Create;
try
StrStream := TStringStream.Create(s);
try
stream.LoadFromFile(filename);
stream.Seek(0, soFromBeginning);
ObjectBinaryToText(stream, StrStream);
StrStream.Seek(0, soFromBeginning);
Memo1.Lines.Text := EncodeStringBase64(StrStream.DataString);
finally
StrStream.Free;
end;
finally
stream.Free;
end;
end;
end;
Can anyone help me out?

Answer 1

You get the "illegal stream image" exception because the file you're loading probably isn't a binary DFM file. That's what ObjectBinaryToText is meant to process. It's not for arbitrary data. So get rid of that command.
You can skip the TMemoryStream, too. TStringStream already has a LoadFromFile method, so you can call it directly instead of involving another buffer.
StrStream.LoadFromFile(filename);
But a string isn't really the right data structure to store your file in prior to base64-encoding it. The input to base64 encoding is binary data; the output is text. Using a text data structure as an intermediate format means you may introduce errors into your data because of difficulties in encoding certain data as valid characters. The right interface for your encoding function is this:
function Base64Encode(Data: TStream): string;
You don't need to load the entire file into memory prior to encoding it. Just open the file with a TFileStream and pass it to your encoding function. Read a few bytes from it at a time with the stream's Read method, encode them as base64, and append them to the result string. (If you find that you need them, you can use an intermediate TStringBuilder for collecting the result, and you can add different buffering around the file reads. Don't worry about those right away, though; get your program working correctly first.)
Use it something like this:
procedure TForm1.BitBtn1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
filename: string;
stream: TStream;
begin
if OpenDialog1.Execute then begin
filename := OpenDialog1.Filename;
stream := TFileStream.Create(filename, fmOpenRead);
try
Memo1.Lines.Text := Base64Encode(stream);
finally
stream.Free;
end;
end;
end;

Answer 2

I never heard before about ObjectBinaryToText(), but looks like funky one. Also, what is EncodeStringBase64() function?
At first place, you shouldn't convert binary stream to text to encode it, instead you should directly B64 encode binary data. B64 algorithm is intended to work on array of bytes.
Since Delphi 6, there is EncdDecd.pas unit, which implements B64 encoding methods. I'm not sure if Lazarus/FPC have this, but if they do, your code to B64 encode file should look like this (add EncdDecd to uses list):
procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
instream : TFileStream;
outstream: TStringStream;
begin
if OpenDialog1.Execute then
begin
instream := TFileStream.Create(OpenDialog1.FileName, fmOpenRead or fmShareDenyNone);
try
outstream := TStringStream.Create;
try
EncodeStream(instream, outstream);
Memo1.Lines.Text := outstream.DataString;
finally
outstream.Free;
end;
finally
instream.Free;
end;
end;
end;