Display image from blob using javascript and websockets

Question

I\'m currently working on a WebSocket application that is displaying images send by a C++ server. I\'ve seen a couple of topics around there but I can\'t seem to get rid of

Answer 1

Thanks, it's working great!!

So I figure I'd share my final javascript code:

var socket = new WebSocket('ws://'+host+':'+port, protocol);
socket.binaryType = 'arraybuffer';

try {
    socket.onopen = function() {
        document.getElementById('status').style.backgroundColor = '#40ff40';
        document.getElementById('status').textContent = 'Connection opened';
    }

    socket.onmessage = function(msg) {
        var arrayBuffer = msg.data;
        var bytes = new Uint8Array(arrayBuffer);

        var image = document.getElementById('image');
        image.src = 'data:image/png;base64,'+encode(bytes);
    }

    socket.onclose = function(){
        document.getElementById('status').style.backgroundColor = '#ff4040';
        document.getElementById('status').textContent = 'Connection closed';
    }
} catch(exception) {
    alert('Error:'+exception);
}

don't really understand why the blob version is so tricky but this did the trick!

Answer 2

Thanks to the other answers, I managed to receive a jpeg image by websocket and display it in a new window :

socket.binaryType = "arraybuffer";                 
socket.onmessage = function (msg) 
               {    var bytes = new Uint8Array(msg.data);
                    var blob = new Blob([bytes.buffer]);
                    window.open(URL.createObjectURL(blob),'Name','resizable=1');
                };

Answer 3

I think the cleanest solution would be to change the base64 encoder to operate directly on a Uint8Array instead of a string.

Important: You'll need to set the binaryType of the web socket to "arraybuffer" for this.

The onmessage method should look like this:

socket.onmessage = function(msg) {
    var arrayBuffer = msg.data;
    var bytes = new Uint8Array(arrayBuffer);

    var image = document.getElementById('image');
    image.src = 'data:image/png;base64,'+encode(bytes);
};

The converted encoder should then look like this (based on https://stackoverflow.com/a/246813/1464608):

// public method for encoding an Uint8Array to base64
function encode (input) {
    var keyStr = "ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789+/=";
    var output = "";
    var chr1, chr2, chr3, enc1, enc2, enc3, enc4;
    var i = 0;

    while (i < input.length) {
        chr1 = input[i++];
        chr2 = i < input.length ? input[i++] : Number.NaN; // Not sure if the index 
        chr3 = i < input.length ? input[i++] : Number.NaN; // checks are needed here

        enc1 = chr1 >> 2;
        enc2 = ((chr1 & 3) << 4) | (chr2 >> 4);
        enc3 = ((chr2 & 15) << 2) | (chr3 >> 6);
        enc4 = chr3 & 63;

        if (isNaN(chr2)) {
            enc3 = enc4 = 64;
        } else if (isNaN(chr3)) {
            enc4 = 64;
        }
        output += keyStr.charAt(enc1) + keyStr.charAt(enc2) +
                  keyStr.charAt(enc3) + keyStr.charAt(enc4);
    }
    return output;
}

Answer 4

This is very simple using a Blob:

// Small red dot image
const content = new Uint8Array([137, 80, 78, 71, 13, 10, 26, 10, 0, 0, 0, 13, 73, 72, 68, 82, 0, 0, 0, 5, 0, 0, 0, 5, 8, 6, 0, 0, 0, 141, 111, 38, 229, 0, 0, 0, 28, 73, 68, 65, 84, 8, 215, 99, 248, 255, 255, 63, 195, 127, 6, 32, 5, 195, 32, 18, 132, 208, 49, 241, 130, 88, 205, 4, 0, 14, 245, 53, 203, 209, 142, 14, 31, 0, 0, 0, 0, 73, 69, 78, 68, 174, 66, 96, 130]);

document.getElementById('my-img').src = URL.createObjectURL(
  new Blob([content.buffer], { type: 'image/png' } /* (1) */)
);

Should display a small red dot: <img id="my-img">

Works also with a simple array instead of Uint8Array:

// Small red dot image
const content = [137, 80, 78, 71, 13, 10, 26, 10, 0, 0, 0, 13, 73, 72, 68, 82, 0, 0, 0, 5, 0, 0, 0, 5, 8, 6, 0, 0, 0, 141, 111, 38, 229, 0, 0, 0, 28, 73, 68, 65, 84, 8, 215, 99, 248, 255, 255, 63, 195, 127, 6, 32, 5, 195, 32, 18, 132, 208, 49, 241, 130, 88, 205, 4, 0, 14, 245, 53, 203, 209, 142, 14, 31, 0, 0, 0, 0, 73, 69, 78, 68, 174, 66, 96, 130];

document.getElementById('my-img').src = URL.createObjectURL(
  new Blob(content /* (1) */)
);

(1) It works without specifying the Blob MIME type.

Answer 5

Another alternative

let urlObject;

socket.onmessage = function(msg) {
    const arrayBuffer = msg.data;
    const image = document.getElementById('image');

    if (urlObject) {
        URL.revokeObjectURL(urlObject) // only required if you do that multiple times
    }
    urlObject = URL.createObjectURL(new Blob([arrayBuffer]));

    image.src = urlObject;

};

Answer 6

You may write it much simpler:

socket.onmessage = function(msg) {
   var arrayBuffer = msg.data;
   var bytes = new Uint8Array(arrayBuffer);
   var blob = new Blob([bytes.buffer]);

   var image = document.getElementById('image');

   var reader = new FileReader();
   reader.onload = function(e) {
       image.src = e.target.result;
   };
   reader.readAsDataURL(blob);
};