Develop Reference

C# How to dispose of OpenFileDialog file

I use OpenFileDialog to get the path of an image and then set it to my image source property imgSelected.Source = new BitmapImage(new Uri(filenameSteg, UriKind.Absolute)); in a WPF application.
The thing is, I need to open that file again later but I can't open it since the file is being used by another process ( System.IO.IOException -> The process cannot access the file pathToFile because it is being used by another process.).
The code that needs to access it later it as follow :
bitmapSource = JpegBitmapDecoder.Create(File.Open(filenameSteg, FileMode.Open),
BitmapCreateOptions.None, BitmapCacheOption.OnLoad).Frames[0];
This bitmapSource is used to give that image to a WriteableBitmap and from there I go through the pixels.
Is there any way to dispose of a File opened with an OpenFileDialog ?
I tried to cast to to IDisposable, to use a using block and so on but this thing is persistent.
EDIT :
1 - I tried this (#ctacke answer) :
using (var stream = File.Open(filenameSteg, FileMode.Open)){
bitmapSource = JpegBitmapDecoder.Create(stream, BitmapCreateOptions.None,
BitmapCacheOption.OnLoad).Frames[0];}
But it still gives me the error about the process being already in used by another process because even though it will be disposed after, I still am trying to open the same file (filenameSteg) than I opened in the OpenFileDialog. (Or at least, that's how I see it.)
2 - I then tried this (based on #ctacke recommended link:
using (FileStream fileStream = new FileStream(filenameSteg+1, FileMode.Create)){
MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream();
BitmapImage bi = new BitmapImage();
byte[] fileBytes = File.ReadAllBytes(filenameSteg);
memoryStream.Write(fileBytes, 0, fileBytes.Length);
memoryStream.Position = 0;
bi.BeginInit();
bi.StreamSource = memoryStream;
bi.EndInit();
bitmapSource = bi;}
Note : Notice that I here ask for filenameSteg +1. That is because I wanted to test the rest of my method so I create a copy the file and simply added a 1 to its name. That being said, when using filenameSteg for real, it gave me the same error about being already in used which I again suspect is that I still am asking to open the same image that was previously opened in the OpenFileDialog.
3 - I thought of another approach which does not require me to dispose the opened image :
When I open the image for the first time in the OpenFileDialog, I store the byte array of the image in a variable so I could create the WriteableBitmap using the BitmapFactory and the byte array.
// This is in the OpenFileDialog. It is where I stock the image "pixels" in a byte array.
bytesArrayImage = File.ReadAllBytes(filenameSteg);
//And then later when I needed the WriteableBitmap, I used the byte array and the BitmapFactory
//imgSelected being the Image containing the image I opened in the OpenFileDialog, I used it's
//width and height
wb = BitmapFactory.New(Convert.ToInt32(imgSelected.Width),
Convert.ToInt32(imgSelected.Height)).FromByteArray(bytesArrayImage);
The problem with this approach is that, some pictures works fine and I can use the byte array to create the WriteableBitmap and go through it's pixels but in other cases it gives me an AccessViolationException stating : Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt.. In other words, trying to bypass the dispose problem got me into another problem.

You should release the original image, something like this:
if(imgSelected.Source != null)
{
imgSelected.Source.Dispose;
}
imgSelected.Source = new BitmapImage(new Uri(filenameSteg, UriKind.Absolute));
Next, File.Open returns a stream, which you need to explicitly release.
using(var stream = File.Open(filenameSteg, FileMode.Open))
{
var bitmapSource = JpegBitmapDecoder.Create(stream,
BitmapCreateOptions.None, BitmapCacheOption.OnLoad).Frames[0];
}
See also: Load a BitmapSource and save using the same name in WPF -> IOException

How to dispose bitmapsource

Am using BitmapSource class for reading an image from my temp folder and then reading the metadata using BitmapMetadata class.
BitmapSource img = BitmapFrame.Create(new Uri(filepath));
BitmapMetadata meta = (BitmapMetadata)img.Metadata;
DateTime datetaken = DateTime.Parse(meta.DateTaken);
System.IO.File.Delete(filepath);
While i was trying to delete the image am getting an exception saying "The process cannot access the file 'filepath/filename' because it is being used by another process.".I thought of disposing the bitmapsource before deleting the image. While i was searching for the solution i got info like
"You do not have to Dispose() a BitmapSource. Unlike some other "image" classes in the Framework, it does not wrap any native resources.
Just let it go out of scope, and the garbage collector will free its memory." in the following link Proper way to dispose a BitmapSource .I just want to delete the file that exists in the physical folder. Is there any proper way for the deletion of physical path.
Thanks in advance.

You could do as the top suggested answer here and copy the file to a stream first and initialize the bitmap source from the stream e.g.
MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream();
byte[] fileBytes = File.ReadAllBytes(filepath);
memoryStream.Write(fileBytes, 0, fileBytes.Length);
memoryStream.Position = 0;
BitmapSource img = BitmapFrame.Create(memoryStream);
BitmapMetadata meta = (BitmapMetadata)img.Metadata;
DateTime datetaken = DateTime.Parse(meta.DateTaken);
System.IO.File.Delete(filepath);
I've tried this and it works for me

Bad RawFormat when loading emf file

I'm trying to load an emf file in to an Image Object, however the RawFormat is always incorrect {[ImageFormat: b96b3cac-0728-11d3-9d7b-0000f81ef32e]} instead of Emf. I've tried loading from a file stream and memory stream. I've also tried creating a MetaFile object instead of an Image but to no avail. Is this a bug or there some other trick I don't know about?
MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream(imageData);//imageData is a byte array
Image tempImage = Image.FromStream(stream);

Does this help?
System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Emf.Guid = {b96b3cac-0728-11d3-9d7b-0000f81ef32e}
Dan

Saving a modified image to the original file using GDI+

I was loading a Bitmap Image from a File. When I tried to save the Image to another file I got the following error "A generic error occurred in GDI+". I believe this is because the file is locked by the image object.
Ok so tried calling the Image.Clone function. This still locks the file.
hmm. Next I try loading a Bitmap Image from a FileStream and load the image into memory so GDI+ doesn't lock the file. This works great except I need to generate thumbnails using Image.GetThumbnailImage method it throws an out of memory exception. Apparently I need to keep the stream open to stop this exception but if I keep the stream open then the file remains locked.
So no good with that method. In the end I created a copy of the file. So now I have 2 versions of the file. 1 I can lock and manipulate in my c# program. This other original file remains unlocked to which I can save modifications to. This has the bonus of allowing me to revert changes even after saving them because I'm manipulating the copy of the file which cant change.
Surely there is a better way of achieving this without having to have 2 versions of the image file. Any ideas?

Well if you're looking for other ways to do what you're asking, I reckon it should work to create a MemoryStream, and read out the FileStream to it, and load the Image from that stream...
var stream = new FileStream("original-image", FileMode.Open);
var bufr = new byte[stream.Length];
stream.Read(bufr, 0, (int)stream.Length);
stream.Dispose();
var memstream = new MemoryStream(bufr);
var image = Image.FromStream(memstream);
Or something prettier to that extent.
Whether or not that's the way you should go about solving that problem, I don't know. :)
I've had a similar problem and wound up fixing it like this.

I have since found an alternative method to clone the image without locking the file. Bob Powell has it all plus more GDI resources.
//open the file
Image i = Image.FromFile(path);
//create temporary
Image t=new Bitmap(i.Width,i.Height);
//get graphics
Graphics g=Graphics.FromImage(t);
//copy original
g.DrawImage(i,0,0);
//close original
i.Dispose();
//Can now save
t.Save(path)

I had a similar problem. But I knew, that I will save the image as a bitmap-file. So I did this:
public void SaveHeightmap(string path)
{
if (File.Exists(path))
{
Bitmap bitmap = new Bitmap(image); //create bitmap from image
image.Dispose(); //delete image, so the file
bitmap.Save(path); //save bitmap
image = (Image) bitmap; //recreate image from bitmap
}
else
//...
}
Sure, thats not the best way, but its working :-)

WPF BitmapSource ImageSource

I am binding an Image.Source property to the result of the property shown below.
public BitmapSource MyImageSource
{
get
{
BitmapSource source = null;
PngBitmapDecoder decoder;
using (var stream = new FileStream(#"C:\Temp\logo.png", FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read, FileShare.Read))
{
decoder = new PngBitmapDecoder(stream, BitmapCreateOptions.PreservePixelFormat, BitmapCacheOption.None);
if (decoder.Frames != null && decoder.Frames.Count > 0)
source = decoder.Frames[0];
}
return source;
}
}
For some reason this is failing during the rendering of the image (Deep in the PresentationCore assembly). I am certain the image is not corrupt as I can successfully show the same image w/o the binding
<Image Name="FooImage" Source="/logo.png" />
I have to bind the image source in code because I will eventually be creating the image stream from a base64 string.
Anyone know if this is a bug w/ WPF? or am I doing something incorrectly?

The problem was the BitmapCacheOption option, changing to BitmapCacheOption.OnLoad works.
With BitmapCacheOption.None the BitmapSource isn’t decoded until the image is rendered, but the stream with the png in it is already disposed at that point. If you cache OnLoad, it’ll decode right away and cache the results, rather than trying to decode later when the stream no longer exists.

Also, have you tried just using a BitmapImage to load the image? It works fine with PNG, BMP, and JPEG.
It's also a specialized type of BitmapSource, so you could just replace your code in your property with this:
BitmapImage img = new BitmapImage(new Uri(#"C:\Temp\logo.png"));
return img;

Are you positive it's a PNG and not just a renamed Bitmap or Jpeg? If you create a new Bitmap image and then just rename it and change the file extension, this error is reproducible.
If I use a known PNG with your code, I don't get your issue, but a COM exception is thrown:
The handle is invalid. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80070006 (E_HANDLE))
Can you try it out with a random PNG off the web and see if you get the same result?