Ok, we know how to connect to the database, we know how to insert data into the database, and we have access to the uploaded image's properties. But how do we pass the stream of the image to SaveToDB(). Again, .NET comes to the rescue. With 1 line of code we are able to access the image stream and convert it to a Byte array.
int n = imgStream.Read(imgBinaryData,0,imgLen);
The stream object provides a method called Read(). Read() takes 3 parameters:
-
buffer- An array of bytes. A maximum of count bytes are read from the current stream and stored in buffer. -
offset- The byte offset in buffer at which to begin storing the data read from the current stream. -
count- The maximum number of bytes to be read from the current stream.
So we pass in our Byte array, imgBinaryData; the place to start at, 0;
and the amount of bytes we want to read. n number of bytes read into
our array
is returned.
Extending beyond images
Because we are able to access the binary stream of data, images are not the only object we can store in the database. Some other objects might be streaming video, com objects, or sound clips.
Conclusion
So there we have it, ASP.NET provides us some easy functionality for uploading images into a database. In Part II, we will actually look at pulling these images out of a database and sending them to a browser. The complete code used for this article can be found on the next page.
Comments