StoreStream Method  
 

Reads the data stream from the socket and stores it in a specified file.

Syntax

object.StoreStream( FileName, [Length], [Offset], [Options] )

Parameters

FileName
A string variable that specifies the name of the file that will contain the data read from the socket. If the file does not exist, it will be created. If the file does exist, it will be overwritten.
Length
A numeric variable which specifies the maximum amount of data to be read from the socket. When the method returns, this variable will be updated with the actual number of bytes read. Note that because this argument is passed by reference and modified by the method, you must provide a variable, not a numeric constant. If this argument is omitted or the value is initialized to zero, this method will read data from the socket until the remote host disconnects or an error occurs.
Offset
A numeric value which specifies the byte offset into the file where the method will start storing data read from the socket. Note that all data after this offset will be truncated. If this argument is omitted or a value of zero is specified the file will be completely overwritten if it already exists.
Options
An optional integer value which specifies any options to be used when reading the data stream. One or more of the following bit flags may be specified by the caller:
Value Constant Description
0 swStreamDefault The data stream will be returned to the caller unmodified. This option should always be used with binary data or data being stored in a byte array. If no options are specified, this is the default option used by this method.
1 swStreamConvert The data stream is considered to be textual and will be modified so that end-of-line character sequences are converted to follow standard Windows conventions. This will ensure that all lines of text are terminated with a carriage-return and linefeed sequence. Because this option modifies the data stream, it should never be used with binary data. Using this option may result in the amount of data returned in the buffer to be larger than the source data. For example, if the source data only terminates a line of text with a single linefeed, this option will have the effect of inserting a carriage-return character before each linefeed.

Return Value

This method returns a Boolean value. If the method succeeds, the return value is True. If the function fails, the return value is False. To get extended error information, check the value of the LastError property.

Remarks

The StoreStream method enables an application to read an arbitrarily large stream of data from the socket and store it in a file. This method is essentially a simplified version of the ReadStream method, designed specifically to be used with files rather than strings or byte arrays.

This method will force the thread to block until the operation completes. If this method is called with the Blocking property set to False, it will automatically switch the socket into a blocking mode, read the data stream and then restore the socket to non-blocking mode when it has finished. If another socket operation is attempted while StoreStream is blocked waiting for data from the remote host, an error will occur. It is recommended that this function only be used with blocking (synchronous) socket connections; if the application needs to establish multiple simultaneous connections, it should create worker threads to manage each connection.

Because StoreStream can potentially cause the application to block for long periods of time as the data stream is being read, the control will periodically generate OnProgress events. An application can use this event to update the user interface as the data is being read. Note that an application should never perform a blocking operation inside the event handler.

See Also

Blocking Property, ReadStream Method, WriteStream Method, OnProgress Event