how to read data from dat file? - delphi

how to read data from .dat files ?
i just tried like this memo1.lines.loadfromfile('c:\myfile.dat'); but not worked
Note : File type is binary
can any one please help me :)

#radick to show the contents of an binary file in a memo control you must encode o convert the data to valid ASCII characters, to turn it all into text. because you can not load something that is not text into a text control.
you can find a very nice sample from Peter Below in this link.
read a binary file and display the byte values as ASCII?
(source: swissdelphicenter.ch)

Use the TStream descendants from the VCL Classes unit to read binary files.
There are plenty Delphi TStream reading binary files examples you can find using Google.
--jeroen

You might look at this post as they seem to be discussing this very thing.

Related

tool to convert avpr file to avdl file

Avro's IDL page documents that avro-tools.jar has an idl command converting an avdl file to an avpr file. Is there a way to go in the other direction, from an avpr file to an avdl file?
I was unable to find any documentation on this matter but given that the two formats appear to contain the same data with different syntax, it should be possible to convert both ways.
I have written a java util to create a IDL from a bunch of avro schemas, part of spf4j-avro for more detail see. Makes schemas a lot more readable...

Delphi xe8 error reading textfile created from Delphi 7 version and vice versa

I try to convert a code from Delphi 7 to delphi xe8 and I cannot find a solution to the following case.
Our old application creates a txt file which first row is like that
±HEADER―ID°N1799―USER_ID°N1―PATH_NAME―R_DATABASE°TC:\DATA―R_SERVER°TTEST_SRV―R_COMPUTER°TMYPC―
Char(―) is chr(175).
We tried to read the already created file from our new application with Delphi xe8 like that:
StrData := TStringList.Create;
StrData.LoadFromFile(sFile);
StrData.Text returns the desired text but chr(175) is replaced with chr(8213).
In order to go on I did the followings:
StrData.LoadFromFile(sFile,TEncoding.ANSI);
StrData.Text := StringReplace(StrData.Text,Chr(8213),Chr(175),[rfReplaceAll]);
What I cannot solve is the opposite case.
I have to create that file from Delphi xe8 so as it would be exactly the same with the one produced from the old delphi 7 application.
At the beginning I used the same code we had:
StrData.SavetoFile(sFile); //returns text but chr(175) is replaced with (?)
Also i tried all encodings with no results.
StrData.SavetoFile(sFile,Ansi);//returns text but chr(175) is replaced with (?) etc.
The same results also when converts the code to TStreamFile or textfile.
base64 encode files
Old one - Correct one (StrData.SavetoFile(sFile)) //Delphi 7
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
StrData.SavetoFile(sFile,Tencoding.Ansi); & StrData.SavetoFile(sFile); //XE8
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
StrData.SavetoFile(sFile,Tencoding.UTF8); //XE8
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
Any ideas?
The file saved by your Delphi 7 program is UTF-8 encoded. I decoded the base64 that you supplied and look at it in a hex editor. It looks like this:
The first two bytes are C2 B1. That is the UTF-8 encoding for ±. You can check that here: https://mothereff.in/utf-8.
Use LoadFromFile(..., TEncoding.UTF8) to load the file, and SaveToFile(..., TEncoding.UTF8) to save it. That's all you need to do. Note that when you save this way then a BOM will be included in the file. If that is not desired then it possible to omit the BOM, as has been covered here before.
Do note that you must remove the call to StringReplace. That modifies the text and serves no useful purpose. You absolutely do not wish to replace U+2015 ― with U+00AF ¯.
Based on the comments to this answer it seems that you have some Delphi 7 code that produced UTF-8 encoded text which behaves incorrectly when executed by Delphi XE8. That's not surprising due to the change from ANSI to UTF-16. You will need to revisit this code and adapt it appropriately. It's impossible for us to say more given the fact the only you have this code.
It feels very much as though you are trying things almost at random and hoping for a quick fix. That is not productive. You will only make progress with a clear understanding of Unicode, and your program. You will need to step back, slow down, and fill in the gaps in your knowledge.

Store bitmap in text file

I want to store small bitmaps in a text file similar to the way Delphi does it with it's dfm files.
Is there a function in the RTL or VCL that I could use to do this?
I suggest that you do the following:
Save to an in memory stream. Use TMemoryStream, and call SaveToStream on the bitmap.
Compress the stream, perhaps using the zlib unit. This step is optional.
Encode the stream using base64. For example you can use the functionality provided by Soap.EncdDecd.
And in the opposite direction, well you just reverse the steps.
Textual DFMs use the BinToHex() function to format binary data.
You can simply use Win32.WriteFile to write your bitmap-buffer into a file.

How to get Date and Time the picture was taken at?

I am writing a program in Delphi which should get the date and time of the picture which was taken with photo cam and then it would rename the file to include the date+time it found.
So far i have achieved that by opening file as binary and searching for a special order of bytes. These bytes were then followed by the date and then time. So i've come to a problem. Actually few problems.
Because it reads the file 1 byte after another, reading a file is a slow process. If the date was found, it is usually at the start of file, it doesn't take long, however if 'special byte order' was not found, it will read the whole file. So my method is way too slow.
The special byte order may change in some pictures (i have no idea why) even if it was taken with the same camera. So my program sometimes fails to find the date in the file even though it is there.
Windows explorer has no problems finding date in all of the pictures, so i was thinking maybe there are some kind of special functions which could get me what i need?
How do i get the information i need from the picture so it works with all the formats?
Thanks
I think you only need to look at the EXIF information. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exif
There are some open source tools which accomplish that, but I don't know of anything Delphi specific. If you're not scared of Java, you can have a look at the source code of this open source project: http://sourceforge.net/projects/jexifviewer/ to see how they evaluate the date field.
You can then optimise your reader, to only look at the relevant area. You might want to keep in mind that the Endianness in Java is different to Delphi.
Jules is right about Exif data; you might want to try this Delphi library:
http://delphihaven.wordpress.com/ccr-exif/
This is an amazing site to view Exif data.
http://regex.info/exif.cgi
If it is a graphic file (as in your case), to open it with a dialog box, place a TOpenPictureDialog component on the form.
Also place the component TLabel, for displaying the date of creation of the file.
In the button's place the following code:
if OpenPictureDialog1.Execute then Label1.Caption := DateTimeToStr(FileDateToDateTime(FileAge(OpenPictureDialog1.FileName));
In order to open jpeg and png files in the code, in the line uses you need to add the name of the two libraries, JPEG, PNGImage.
If you have the full address of your file, you can write the code above instead of the code above:
Label1.Caption := DateTimeToStr(FileDateToDateTime(FileAge('full address to file')));
If you only need the date, without the file creation time, then instead of the DateTimeToStr command, use the DateToStr command.

How does acrobat encode annotations added as sticky notes to pdfs?

We have been reading and writing Sticky Notes/Annotations/Comments to pdfs via an activex control in our application for a number of years. We have recently upgraded to Delphi2009 with Unicode Support. The following is causing problems.
When we call
CAcroPDAnnot.GetContents
The results seem to be rather strange and we lose our Unicode Chars. It is not like saving as an ansi string which would usually result in returning ????? instead we get a string such as
‚És‚­“ú‚É•—Ž×‚ð‚Ђ¢‚½‚ç
For a string of Japanese characters.
However if I save the comments in the pdf to a datafile via the menu in the pdf itself it is written to file as something like
0kˆL0Oeå0k˜¨ª0’0r0D0_0‰
The latter can be export and reimported into an acrobat pdf and will recreate the correct unicode characters. However once I call CAcroPDAnnot.GetContents in my code it is coming back as something else.
Is CAcroPDAnnot.GetContents broken?
Is there an encoding scheme I should be aware of?
Is there an alternative I might be able to do?
Thanks
‚És‚­“ú‚É•—Ž×‚ð‚Ђ¢‚½‚ç
That's the string:
に行く日に風邪をひいたら
in CP-932 aka Shift-JIS encoding, an awful but lamentably still-popular encoding in Japan.
You're currently interpreting it in as CP-1252 (Windows Western European). If your PDF-reading component won't convert it for you automatically, you'll need to find a way to detect what encoding the document is in and convert it manually.
I don't know what Delphi provides for reading encodings, but have you got the encodings for Shift-JIS installed in Windows, from the Control Panel -> Regional Options -> "Install files for East Asian languages" option? If not, that might explain why it'd be failing to convert automatically, perhaps.
You're not exactly giving us a lot of information to work with.
I take it you're talking about the "Acrobat.CAcroPDAnnot" class' method GetContents here. Which version of Acrobat are you using? Have you perhaps switched versions (or run an update) around the time you started programming with Delphi 2009?
Then: how did you instantiate the object? If using a *_TLB.pas file generated from the DLL, are you certain it still matches it? (Try re-generating it, if uncertain).
Third: how are you calling the method? What type of variable are you assigning the result to?
What might also help, is if you could provide a sample of an annotation (preferably including non-ASCII chars); and for that annotation:
what it should look like (and what it does look like inside Reader)
what it returns when using a pre-2009 version of Delphi*
what it returns when using Delphi 2009*
(* preferably the HEX byte codes of the (ansi/wide)strings; but output from the Ctrl-F7 inspector should do)
Then maybe someone could provide a more meaningful answer.
Ok, one of the main differences between Delphi 2009 and the earlier versions is that the default string type is an unicode string. That means that if you use the same ActiveX component as in previous versions, you are passing unicode strings to ascii strings and that is usually not a good idea.
There are a couple of solutions for this problem:
Try if you can upgrade your activeX component so that it supports full unicode strings.
Use AnsiString and not string to communicate with the activeX component. In this case, you can still use the old interface, but you are still bound to the same limitations.
Use an other control that creates pdf. There is a lot to find, but be prepared to change a big chunk of your software. (Some controls are XML based and use encoding. )

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