Title: Universal embedding of files in Delphi units
Question: This article attempts to explain how to include files inside a Delphi unit / application as different kinds of binaries and how to manage them without the resource technology.
Answer:
The app is called the Hexer works on VCL and CLX.
//Update 1, 2005-05-29: Migration to Linux in one pas file
//Update 2, 2005-06-05: Call the bytearray from a dll (export)
You can put your files into your delphi project at design time and then just compile it to get all into one or more units.
First you have to convert the file in a delphi unit by the Hexer. Then you call it from your own app which embedds the unit.
You can even store waves or pictures and play it without the need to create a file, play it from memory.
if not PlaySound(@UtopiaWinstarten_wav, 0, SND_MEMORY + SND_SYNC)
It is possible to embed any kind of file (also executables) in an executable using the Hexer. First example is a picture:
procedure TForm1.btnPicloadClick(Sender: TObject);
var mybitmap: TBitmap;
bitStream: TStream;
begin
//mybitmap.LoadFromFile('dws_logo.bmp'); for the mortals
mybitmap:= TBitmap.Create;
bitStream:= TMemoryStream.Create;
try
bitStream.Writebuffer(dws_logo_bmp, sizeof(dws_logo_bmp));
bitStream.Position:= 0;
mybitmap.LoadFromStream(bitStream);
if assigned(mybitmap) then begin
image1.Picture.assign(mybitmap);
image1.update;
end;
finally
bitStream.Free;
mybitmap.Free;
end;
end;
Second example is an executable:
procedure TForm1.btnApploadClick(Sender: TObject);
var mybitmap: TBitmap;
bitStream: TMemoryStream;
begin
mybitmap:= TBitmap.Create;
bitStream:= TMemoryStream.Create;
try
bitStream.Writebuffer(viergewinnt_exe, sizeof(viergewinnt_exe));
bitStream.Position:= 0;
bitstream.LoadFromStream(bitstream);
bitstream.SaveToFile('vierg.exe');
WinExec(pchar('vierg.exe'){ + ' ' + ParamStr},SW_NORMAL);
finally
bitStream.Free;
mybitmap.Free;
end;
end;
--------------------------------------------------------------------
How does the Hexer works?
MainForm2.TForm1.btnConvertClick (97i)
MainForm2.TForm1.ConvertToUnit (103i)
MainForm2.WriteString (108i)
MainForm2.EmbedFile (117i)
MainForm2.WriteString (108i)
We open with createFile() the unit for write down the file in the unit. The
CreateFile function creates or opens objects and returns a handle that can be
used to access the object.
f_hndoutput:= CreateFile(PChar(ChangeFileExt(edtUnitToCreate.Text,
'.pas')), GENERIC_WRITE, 0, NIL, CREATE_ALWAYS,
FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL, 0);
Then we call EmbedFile which opens the file to be write down in the unit. The
WriteFile function writes data to a file and is designed for both synchronous
and asynchronous operation. The function starts writing data to the file at
the position indicated by the file pointer.
BOOL WriteFile(
HANDLE hFile, // handle to file to write to
LPCVOID lpBuffer, // pointer to data to write to file
DWORD nNumberOfBytesToWrite, // number of bytes to write
LPDWORD lpNumberOfBytesWritten, // pointer to bytes written
LPOVERLAPPED lpOverlapped );
After the write operation has been completed, the file pointer is adjusted by the number of bytes actually written.
f_hndopen:= CreateFile(PChar(filename), GENERIC_WRITE +
GENERIC_READ, 0, NIL, OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL, 0);
Each time the file pointer is adjusted we write a block of
abuf: array[0..19] of byte;
Result:= ReadFile(f_hndopen, abuf, sizeof(abuf), BytesRead, NIL);
if bytesRead 0 then begin
At least our generated unit looks like
Unit dws_logo2;
interface
const
dws_logo_bmp: array[0..21717] of byte = (
$42,$4D,$D6,$54,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$76,$00,$00,$00,$28,$00,$00,$00,$F0,$00,
$00,$00,$B4,$00,$00,$00,$01,$00,$04,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$60,$54,$00,$00,$C4,$0E,
$00,$00,$C4,$0E,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,$00,
..............
-----------------------------------------------------------------
The app der Hexer
unit MainForm2;
{Analyzed by: PAL - Pascal Analyzer version 2.1.9.1
Parse speed: 186 lines in 0.11 seconds (1691 lines/sec).
Main file: D:\FRANKTECH\DELPHMAX\HEXER\MAINFORM2.PAS
Compiler: Delphi 7.1, ModelMaker 6.2}
interface
uses
Windows, Classes, Controls, Forms, Dialogs, ExtCtrls, StdCtrls;
type
TForm1 = class(TForm)
btnConvert: TButton;
lbFilesToConvert: TListBox;
btnAddFiles: TButton;
btnDeleteFiles: TButton;
edtUnitToCreate: TEdit;
btnBrowse: TButton;
Bevel1: TBevel;
lblfiles: TLabel;
lblunit: TLabel;
OpenDialog: TOpenDialog;
SaveDialog: TSaveDialog;
btnExit: TButton;
procedure FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
procedure btnAddFilesClick(Sender: TObject);
procedure btnBrowseClick(Sender: TObject);
procedure lbFilesToConvertClick(Sender: TObject);
procedure btnDeleteFilesClick(Sender: TObject);
procedure btnExitClick(Sender: TObject);
procedure btnConvertClick(Sender: TObject);
private
{ Private declarations }
procedure CheckButtonStatus;
procedure ConvertToUnit;
public
{ Public declarations }
end;
var
Form1: TForm1;
implementation
{$R *.dfm}
uses sysutils;
const
CRLF = #13#10;
CRLF2 = #13#10#13#10;
STR3L = ' ';
procedure TForm1.CheckButtonStatus;
begin
btnConvert.Enabled:= (edtUnitToCreate.Text '') and
(lbFilesToConvert.Items.Count 0);
btnDeleteFiles.Enabled:= lbFilesToConvert.SelCount 0;
end;
procedure TForm1.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
begin
CheckButtonStatus;
end;
procedure TForm1.btnAddFilesClick(Sender: TObject);
var x : integer;
begin
if OpenDialog.Execute then
if OpenDialog.Files.Count 0 then
for x:= 0 to OpenDialog.Files.Count-1 do
if not lbFilesToConvert.Items.IndexOf(OpenDialog.Files[x]) -1 then
lbFilesToConvert.Items.Add(OpenDialog.Files[x]);
CheckButtonStatus;
end;
procedure TForm1.btnBrowseClick(Sender: TObject);
begin
if SaveDialog.Execute then
edtUnitToCreate.Text:= SaveDialog.FileName;
CheckButtonStatus;
end;
procedure TForm1.lbFilesToConvertClick(Sender: TObject);
begin
CheckButtonStatus;
end;
procedure TForm1.btnDeleteFilesClick(Sender: TObject);
begin
lbFilesToConvert.DeleteSelected;
CheckButtonStatus;
end;
procedure TForm1.btnExitClick(Sender: TObject);
begin
Close;
end;
procedure TForm1.btnConvertClick(Sender: TObject);
begin
//procedure could be moved to a logic unit
ConvertToUnit;
end;
procedure TForm1.ConvertToUnit;
var f_hndoutput: THandle;
cntr: integ er;
f_error: boolean;
function WriteString(const theString: string) : boolean;
var bytesToWrite,
bytesWritten: cardinal;
begin
bytesToWrite:= Length(theString);
WriteFile(f_hndoutput, theString[1], bytesToWrite, bytesWritten, NIL);
Result:= bytesToWrite = bytesWritten;
end;
function EmbedFile(const filename: string): boolean;
var f_hndopen: THandle;
abuf: array[0..19] of byte;
bytesRead, x,
fSizeHigh, fSizeLow: cardinal;
fSize: int64;
fExtension: string;
begin
f_hndopen:= CreateFile(PChar(filename), GENERIC_WRITE +
GENERIC_READ,0, NIL, OPEN_EXISTING, FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL, 0);
Result:= f_hndopen INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE;
if Result then begin
fSizeLow:= GetFileSize(f_hndopen, @fSizeHigh);
Result:= (fSizeLow $ffffffff) or (GetLastError = NO_ERROR);
if Result then begin
fSize:= int64(fSizeHigh) * $100000000 + fSizeLow;
fExtension:= ExtractFileExt(filename);
if Length(fExtension) 0 then
Delete(fExtension,1,1);
Result:= WriteString(STR3L +
ExtractFileName(ChangeFileExt(filename,'_'+fExtension)) +
': array[0..' + IntToStr(fSize-1) + '] of byte =
(' + CRLF);
if Result then begin
repeat
//bytesToRead:= sizeof(buffer);
Result:= ReadFile(f_hndopen, abuf, sizeof(abuf), bytesRead, NIL);
if bytesRead 0 then begin
Result:= Result and WriteString(STR3L);
for x:= 0 to bytesRead-1 do begin
if x 0 then
Result:= Result and WriteString(',');
Result:= Result and WriteString('$'+IntToHex(abuf[x], 2));
end;
fSize:= fSize - bytesRead;
if fSize 0 then
Result:= Result and WriteString(',' + CRLF);
end;
until (bytesRead = 0) or not Result;
Result:= Result and WriteString(');' + CRLF2);
end;
end;
CloseHandle(f_hndopen);
end; //result
end;
begin
f_hndoutput:= CreateFile(PChar(ChangeFileExt(edtUnitToCreate.Text,
'.pas')), GENERIC_WRITE, 0, NIL,
CREATE_ALWAYS, FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL, 0);
f_error:= false;
if f_hndoutput INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE then begin
Screen.Cursor:= crHourGlass;
if WriteString('Unit ' +
ExtractFileName(ChangeFileExt(edtUnitToCreate.Text,
'')) + ';' + CRLF) then begin
if WriteString(CRLF + 'interface' + CRLF2) then
if WriteString('const ' + CRLF) then begin
for cntr:= 0 to lbFilesToConvert.Items.Count-1 do
if EmbedFile(lbFilesToConvert.Items[cntr]) then
if WriteString(CRLF + 'implementation' + CRLF2) then
f_error:= not WriteString('end.');
end;
end;
Screen.Cursor:= crDefault;
CloseHandle(f_hndoutput);
end;
if f_error then
ShowMessage('Some Errors occured');
end;
end.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Conclusion:
You do have 3 possibilites to embed files:
1. article 2606 or 4217 shows the way with resources / resource workshop
2. article 2321 is based on TComponent and TStream with write and read
3. this article is more generic the advantage is transparency at design time
and protection at runtime of the embedded files, you can even use binaries
which you control with an inline assembler format.
The whole project Hexer and loader/player is downloadable.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Update 1
Some points to CLX:
Despite the low level stuff of the winapi no great obstacles were found during the migration.
QForms, QDialogs,
QStdCtrls, QControls, QExtCtrls, Classes;
a few functions had to be reselected, for ex:
FileWrite writes Count bytes to the file given by Handle from the buffer specified by Buffer. Handle is a file handle returned
by the FileOpen or FileCreate method.
or another approach to define the filesize has to be considered:
{If the file is declared as a file of byte, then the record size defaults to one byte, and FileSize returns the number of bytes in the file.}
Update2
Exporting a great const from a DLL
First you declare the type of the const and second you define a wrap function around the type:
library hexerdll;
type Tviergewinnt_exe = array[0..88598] of byte;
const
viergewinnt_exe: TViergewinnt_exe = (
$4D,$5A,$00,$01,$01,$00,$00,$00,$08,$00,$10,$00,$FF,$FF,$08,$00,$00,$01,$00,$00,
.............
function getArrayofByte: Tviergewinnt_exe;
begin
result:= viergewinnt_exe;
end;
exports
getArrayofByte;
The call of the client has the following structure:
the important thing is to declare a local var of the const in our case dllexe: Tviergewinnt_exe;
unit playmain;
// examples to call the embedded file in the unit or the dll
........
type Tviergewinnt_exe = array[0..88598] of byte;
function getArrayofByte: Tviergewinnt_exe; external 'hexerdll';
procedure TForm1.btnApploadClick(Sender: TObject);
var bitStream: TMemoryStream;
dllexe: Tviergewinnt_exe;
begin
bitStream:= TMemoryStream.Create;
//getArrayofByte
dllexe:= getArrayofByte;
try
// import DLL const
bitStream.Writebuffer(dllexe, sizeof(dllexe));
bitStream.Position:= 0;
bitstream.LoadFromStream(bitstream);
bitstream.SaveToFile('viergewinnt.exe');
........