Loading embedded resource images into PdfSharp/MigraDoc for non-web projects layers
13 Dec, 2015
There are some cases (for example on Azure) when you can’t really rely on ASP’s Web-layer file resources or “server paths” and file management libraries to access your static resource files. For example if you have a business layer which doesn’t really have a direct access to another layer’s files but you need to generate a PDF using PdfSharp/MigraDoc inside that layer.
How it can be done is - you need to add an image file to your layer, then right-click on it and go to it’s properties. There you need to set the “Build Action” to Embedded Resource, and the “Copy to Output Directory” to Copy if newer. After that, use these three simple methods to load up the image from the assembly into a Stream, convert it to a byte[] array and then encode it as a base64 string.
// MigraDocProvider.cs
/// <summary>
/// Gets "Assembly Resource" image encoded as base64 string (which MigraDoc knows how to
/// handle), ready to be consumed by MigraDoc components. Images are located in ~/Resources/images/*
/// and they need to be marked as "Embedded Resource" and set to "Copy if newer".
/// </summary>
/// <see cref="http://pdfsharp.net/wiki/MigraDoc_FilelessImages.ashx"/>
/// <param name="imageName">Image Assembly Resource name.</param>
/// <returns></returns>
protected string GetMigraDocImage(string imageName)
{
// Add your namespace + project path to the image you want to embed
var assemblyResourceName = String.Format("Your.Layer.Namespace.Resources.images.{0}", imageName);
var image = LoadAssemblyImage(assemblyResourceName);
var imageFilename = ConvertToMigraDocFilename(image);
return imageFilename;
}
/// <summary>
/// Loads assembly image from the project and converts it to a byte array.
/// </summary>
/// <see cref="http://pdfsharp.net/wiki/MigraDoc_FilelessImages.ashx"/>
/// <param name="name">Assembly File Name.</param>
/// <returns>Image data array.</returns>
private byte[] LoadAssemblyImage(string name)
{
var assembly = Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly();
using (Stream stream = assembly.GetManifestResourceStream(name))
{
if (stream == null)
throw new ArgumentException("No resource with name " + name);
int count = (int)stream.Length;
byte[] data = new byte[count];
stream.Read(data, 0, count);
return data;
}
}
/// <summary>
/// Converts image data array to base64 string. Used for integrating images into MigraDoc PDF's.
/// </summary>
/// <see cref="http://pdfsharp.net/wiki/MigraDoc_FilelessImages.ashx"/>
/// <param name="image">Image data array.</param>
/// <returns>Image as base64 string.</returns>
protected string ConvertToMigraDocFilename(byte[] image)
{
return String.Format("base64:{0}", Convert.ToBase64String(image));
}By using the base64 representation of the image, you will be able to embed it into your PDF document.
Cheers!
