Develop Reference

Showing Images using XF ImagePicker Without Putting Image in Resources

In Xamarin.Forms prerelease they have released a media picker: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/xamarin/essentials/media-picker?tabs=android
This is obviously a great addition and the fact that you don't have to use any 3rd party-library is great!
I'm creating an event management app - in the app the user can select an image for the event and be able to see it.
Here is my code:
public async void OnSelectPhotoCommand()
{
var photo = await MediaPicker.PickPhotoAsync();
await LoadPhotoAsync(photo);
}
async Task LoadPhotoAsync(FileResult photo)
{
var newFile = Path.Combine(FileSystem.CacheDirectory, photo.FileName);
using (var stream = await photo.OpenReadAsync())
using (var newStream = File.OpenWrite(newFile)) { await stream.CopyToAsync(newStream); }
ImagePath = newFile;
}
The problem is the image is not showing or appearing whatsoever - I've tried to modify my code and debug it but I am unable to locate the source of the problem.
I want the user to be actually able to see the image - but I am unsure on how to do that using the MediaPicker without putting it in the Android Resources folder?
Thank you,
tommy

From the xamarin essentials documentation be sure to be running it from the UI Thread.
InvokeOnMainThread ( () => {
OnSelectPhotoCommand();
});

Xamarin Forms Maps - showing current location on iOS

In Xamarin Forms, does the IsShowingUser property of Xamarin.Forms.Maps work for iOS?
I can get every aspect of my map to work on both Android and iOS, but the current location 'blue dot' does not show on iOS.
I'm setting this in shared code in the PCL project, just after successfully asking for permission to use location.
var status = await CrossPermissions.Current.CheckPermissionStatusAsync(Permission.Location);
if (status != PermissionStatus.Granted)
{
var results = await CrossPermissions.Current.RequestPermissionsAsync(new[] { Permission.Location });
status = results[Permission.Location];
}
if (status == PermissionStatus.Granted)
{
MyMap.IsShowingUser = true;
}
thanks

I can get every aspect of my map to work on both Android and iOS, but the current location 'blue dot' does not show on iOS.
It is because the map doesn't locate the current user location at that time, you can use Xam.Plugin.Geolocator to get your current location, and move the map to it.
var locator = CrossGeolocator.Current;
var position = await locator.GetPositionAsync(TimeSpan.FromSeconds(10));
map.MoveToRegion(MapSpan.FromCenterAndRadius(new Position(position.Latitude, position.Longitude),
Distance.FromMiles(1)));

Azure Storage API "StartCopyFromBlob"

I am trying to copy a blob from one location to another and it seems like this method is obsolete. Everything I've read says I should use "StartCopy". However, when I try this it doesn't copy the blob. I just get a 404 error at the destination.
I don't seem to be able to find any documentation for this. Can anyone advise me on how to do this in the latest version of the API or point me in the direction of some docs.
Uri uploadUri = new Uri(destinationLocator.Path);
string assetContainerName = uploadUri.Segments[1];
CloudBlobContainer assetContainer =
cloudBlobClient.GetContainerReference(assetContainerName);
string fileName = HttpUtility.UrlDecode(Path.GetFileName(model.BlockBlob.Uri.AbsoluteUri));
var sourceCloudBlob = mediaBlobContainer.GetBlockBlobReference(fileName);
sourceCloudBlob.FetchAttributes();
if (sourceCloudBlob.Properties.Length > 0)
{
IAssetFile assetFile = asset.AssetFiles.Create(fileName);
var destinationBlob = assetContainer.GetBlockBlobReference(fileName);
destinationBlob.DeleteIfExists();
destinationBlob.StartCopyFromBlob(sourceCloudBlob);
destinationBlob.FetchAttributes();
if (sourceCloudBlob.Properties.Length != destinationBlob.Properties.Length)
model.UploadStatusMessage += "Failed to copy as Media Asset!";
}

I'm just posting my comment as the answer to make it easier to see.
It wasn't the access level of the container. It wasn't anything to do with StartCopy either. It turned out to be these lines of code.
var mediaBlobContainer = cloudBlobClient.GetContainerReference(cloudBlobClient.BaseUri + "temporarymedia");
mediaBlobContainer.CreateIfNotExists();
Apparently I shouldn't be supplying the cloudBlobClient.BaseUri, just the name temporarymedia.
var mediaBlobContainer = cloudBlobClient.GetContainerReference("temporarymedia");
There was no relevant error message though. Hopefully it'll save another Azure newbie some time in future.

Download file from opensubtitles.org

I need to download files from opensubtitles.org trough my application which is written in GTK# and C#. The app is based on .NET 4.0 framework.
At first this was the code I was using:
var tZip = new FastZip();
try {
var tRequest = (HttpWebRequest)HttpWebRequest.Create(tDownloadUrl);
var tZipResponse = (HttpWebResponse)tRequest.GetResponse();
using (var tStream = tZipResponse.GetResponseStream()) {
using (var tMemStream = new MemoryStream()) {
tStream.CopyTo(tMemStream);
var tTempPath = Globals.video_location + "OSD";
Directory.CreateDirectory(tTempPath);
tZip.ExtractZip(tMemStream, tTempPath, FastZip.Overwrite.Always, null, #"\.srt$", null, false, true);
var tDirInfo = new DirectoryInfo(tTempPath);
var tFileInfo = new FileInfo(Globals.location_video);
var tSrtFile = tDirInfo.EnumerateFiles().FirstOrDefault();
if (tSrtFile == null) {
writeLog("No .srt file found in zip..");
goto text;
}
writeLog("Downloaded and unpacked: " + tSrtFile.Name);
File.Copy(tSrtFile.FullName, Globals.video_location+Globals.video_name+".srt", true);
Globals.savedTitle = Globals.video_location+Globals.video_name+".srt";
// clean up..
Directory.Delete(tTempPath, true);
writeLog("Deleted temp folder.");
return true;
}
}}
And that worked really well up until few days ago, now it is returning a bunch of html code instead of .zip file. I tried even something like this:
WebClient client = new WebClient();
client.DownloadFile(link, #"OSD\test.zip");
But everything just keeps returning bunch of html code.
The link I am usually trying to download is something like this:
http://dl.opensubtitles.org/en/download/subad/4287952
If you click on the link above it will just redirect you to the opensubtitles.org page of that particular subtitle. But if you right mouse click on that link and then select "open in new tab" or "open in new window" it will automatically start the download. (Tested in Firefox)
Also as soon as I paste that link in "Internet Download Manager" application, it will start the download of the zip file automatically.
If you can help me to resolve this problem I will truly be grateful.
Kind Regards.

I got into this problem because I was filtering the website xml directly. Like from a link such as this one: opensubtitles.org example
And in the beginning it used to work well, but then they changed something on the website and it stopped working. So what I did was build on top of this: OSHandler
That handler library is using XML-RPC so I believe there won't be any problems in the future.

Getting Local Photos Windows Phone 8 Emulator

So I have taken some Photos on my windows phone emulator and I am then trying to find them in my application.
So Far I have:
PictureCollection CameraRollPictures;
using (var library = new MediaLibrary())
{
//taking all albums
PictureAlbumCollection allAlbums = library.RootPictureAlbum.Albums;
//taking Camera Roll album separately from all album
PictureAlbum cameraRoll = allAlbums.Where(album => album.Name == "Camera Roll").FirstOrDefault();
// here you will get camera roll picture list
CameraRollPictures = cameraRoll.Pictures;
}
But this keeps crashing because cameraRoll = null. Is this feature available on WP8 emulator or am I doing something wrong?
My method to get photos is from this stackoverflow question
EDIT
I have also tried album.Name == "Camera Roll"

So the answer was simple... My method worked perfectly but I needed to:
go into the WMAppManifest.Xml
go to Capabilities
tick ID_CAP_MEDIALIB_PHOTO
This provides read-only access to photos in the media library

MediaSource mediaSource = MediaSource.GetAvailableMediaSources()
.First((source => source.MediaSourceType == MediaSourceType.LocalDevice));
using (MediaLibrary mediaLibrary = new MediaLibrary(mediaSource))
{
PictureAlbum cameraRollAlbum = mediaLibrary.RootPictureAlbum.Albums.First((album) => album.Name == "Camera Roll");
}
or use PhotoChooserTask
You can upload Images to an Emulator as mentioned here