Delphi XE2 DataSnap - Download File via TStream With Progress Bar - delphi

Question

I've written a DataSnap server method that returns a TStream object to transfer a file. The client application calls the method and reads the stream fine. My issue is that the method call takes a while to complete before the TStream object is available to read, but on the server side I can see that the method call only takes a second to create the object to return. I was hoping the stream object would be returned immediately so that I can read the stream and display a progress bar for the download progress. Is there another way I can do this?
The server method is very simple :
function TServerMethods.DespatchDocument(sCompanyID, sDocOurRef: string): TStream;
var
sSourceFilePath: string;
strFileStream: TFileStream;
begin
sSourceFilePath := GetDocumentPDFFilePath(sCompanyID, sDocOurRef);
strFileStream := TFileStream.Create(sSourceFilePath, fmOpenRead);
Result := strFileStream;
end;

Answer 1

This is how I did it a while back. I used XE and haven't had a chance to clean it up.
//Server side:
function TServerMethods1.DownloadFile(out Size: Int64): TStream;
begin
Result := TFileStream.Create('upload.fil', fmOpenRead or fmShareDenyNone);
Size := Result.Size;
Result.Position := 0;
end;
//Client side:
procedure TfMain.DownloadFile(Sender: TObject);
var
RetStream: TStream;
Buffer: PByte;
Mem: TMemoryStream;
BytesRead: Integer;
DocumentId: Int64;
Size: Int64;
filename: WideString;
BufSize: Integer;
begin
BufSize := 1024;
try
Mem := TMemoryStream.Create;
GetMem( Buffer, BufSize );
try
RetStream := FDownloadDS.DownloadFile(Size);
RetStream.Position := 0;
if ( Size <> 0 ) then
begin
filename := 'download.fil';
repeat
BytesRead := RetStream.Read( Pointer( Buffer )^, BufSize );
if ( BytesRead > 0 ) then
begin
Mem.WriteBuffer( Pointer( Buffer )^, BytesRead );
end;
lStatus.Caption := IntToStr( Mem.Size ) + '/' + IntToStr( Size );
Application.ProcessMessages;
until ( BytesRead < BufSize );
if ( Size <> Mem.Size ) then
begin
raise Exception.Create( 'Error downloading file...' );
end;
end
else
begin
lStatus.Caption := '';
end;
finally
FreeMem( Buffer, BufSize );
FreeAndNIl(Mem);
end;
except
on E: Exception do
begin
lErrorMessage.Caption := PChar( E.ClassName + ': ' + E.Message );
end;
end;
end;
You can adjust BufSize however you like. I was having trouble getting the size of the stream until I did it this way. I experimented with XE2 and didn't seem to have the same problem but I was uploading. There is probably a better way to retrieve the size of the stream. If I get the answer soon I'll let you know....
On another note - I haven't figured out how to display a progress bar on the server side. I'm still trying to figure this out too.
I hope this helps! Let me know if you have any questions!

Answer 2

Glad you have some luck! This is the other fix I had to do. You can refer to this link https://forums.embarcadero.com/thread.jspa?threadID=66490&tstart=0
After diving in the code I found in "Data.DBXJSONReflect.pas"
procedure TJSONPopulationCustomizer.PrePopulate(Data: TObject; rttiContext: TRttiContext);
...
3473: rttiField.GetValue(Data).AsObject.Free;
3474: rttiField.SetValue(Data, TValue.Empty);
...
I think it should be this way:
3473: rttiField.SetValue(Data, TValue.Empty);
3474: rttiField.GetValue(Data).AsObject.Free;