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Take a screenshot with Silverlight 5.0 and pInvoke

2012-02-28T00:36:14+01:00 by codeblock

PInvoke is a new entry in Silverlight 5.0 runtime. For the one that are not aware of what is pInvoke I will say it stands for "Platform Invoke". It is a set of classess and attributes that allows the Silverlight runtime to access the low-level Win32 API of Windows Operating System.

After Silverlight 4.0 brought COM interop in Silverlight, the team decided to accomplish the last step and integrate also pInvoke. As you understand, it is only restricted to Windows OS, but is some scenario it may be a very useful thing to cross the subtle line from "can't do" to "can do". Wether you have to detect USB keys, interact with devices and so on, pInvoke require you to directly access the API preparing the mapping to the OS funzions and handling unmanaged resources.

As a littel sample I ported an old example to Silverlight. The code below implements a simple funzion that is able to take a screenshot of the desktop.

   1: public static class ScreenCapture
   2: {       
   3:   public static WriteableBitmap GetDesktopImage()
   4:   {
   5:       WriteableBitmap bmap = null;
   6:  
   7:       // initialize unmanager pointers
   8:       IntPtr hDC = IntPtr.Zero,
   9:              hMemDC = IntPtr.Zero,
  10:              desktop = IntPtr.Zero;
  11:  
  12:       try
  13:       {
  14:           // get a reference to desktop
  15:           desktop = User32.GetDesktopWindow();
  16:           // get an handle to Device Context
  17:           hDC = User32.GetDC(desktop);
  18:           // create a new Device Context in memory
  19:           hMemDC = Gdi32.CreateCompatibleDC(hDC);
  20:  
  21:           // read size of desktop window
  22:           Size size = new Size
  23:           {
  24:               Width = User32.GetSystemMetrics(Gdi32.SM_CXSCREEN),
  25:               Height = User32.GetSystemMetrics(Gdi32.SM_CYSCREEN)
  26:           };
  27:  
  28:           // create a bitmap compatible with desktop
  29:           IntPtr hBitmap = Gdi32.CreateCompatibleBitmap(hDC, size.Width, size.Height);
  30:  
  31:           if (hBitmap != IntPtr.Zero)
  32:           {
  33:               // select memory Device Context into the new bitmap
  34:               IntPtr hOld = (IntPtr)Gdi32.SelectObject(hMemDC, hBitmap);
  35:  
  36:               // copy the desktop to the memory handle
  37:               Gdi32.BitBlt(hMemDC, 0, 0, size.Width, size.Height, hDC, 0, 0, (int)TernaryRasterOperations.SRCCOPY);
  38:  
  39:               // select the memory Device Context into the bitmap
  40:               Gdi32.SelectObject(hMemDC, hOld);
  41:  
  42:               // initialize a bitmap info
  43:               BitmapInfo bi = new BitmapInfo 
  44:               { 
  45:                   biSize = Marshal.SizeOf(typeof (BitmapInfo)), 
  46:                   biWidth = size.Width, 
  47:                   biHeight = size.Height, 
  48:                   biPlanes = 1, 
  49:                   biBitCount = 32, 
  50:                   biCompression = 0, 
  51:                   biSizeImage = 0, 
  52:                   biXPelsPerMeter = 0, 
  53:                   biYPelsPerMeter = 0, 
  54:                   biClrUsed = 0, 
  55:                   biClrImportant = 0 
  56:               };
  57:  
  58:               // calculate byte size of the area
  59:               int dwBmpSize = ((size.Width * bi.biBitCount + 31) / 32) * 4 * size.Height;
  60:               byte[] data = new byte[dwBmpSize];
  61:  
  62:               // initialize a WriteableBitmap to output the result
  63:               bmap = new WriteableBitmap(size.Width, size.Height);
  64:  
  65:               // copy bitmap to byte array
  66:               Gdi32.GetDIBits(hMemDC, hBitmap, 0, (uint)size.Height, data, ref bi, 0);
  67:  
  68:               // compy byte array to WriteableBitmap
  69:               for (int i = 0; i < data.Length; i += 4)
  70:               {
  71:                   int y = size.Height - ((i / 4) / size.Width) - 1;
  72:                   int x = (i / 4) % size.Width;
  73:                   int pixel = data[i + 0] | (data[i + 1] << 8) | (data[i + 2] << 16) | (data[i + 3] << 24);
  74:                   bmap.Pixels[y * size.Width + x] = pixel;
  75:               }
  76:           }
  77:       }
  78:       finally
  79:       {
  80:           // release unmanaged resources
  81:           if (hMemDC != IntPtr.Zero)
  82:               Gdi32.DeleteDC(hMemDC);
  83:           if (hDC != IntPtr.Zero)
  84:               User32.ReleaseDC(desktop, hDC);
  85:       }
  86:  
  87:       // return bitmap
  88:       return bmap;
  89:   }
  90: }

I wrote a number of comments inside the code example to try explain how it works, but in a few words it create a buffer in memory, take a reference to the desktop and copies it to the new area. Then finally it copy again the buffer to a byte array to allow managed code to access the captured image. It is copied to a WriteableBitmap and then returned to the caller.

To use the class you can simply call the static method and check for the result value and exceptions. The code automatically handles the unmanaged resources and is done to freed them before to exit.

   1: private void Button_Click(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
   2: {
   3:     Application.Current.MainWindow.Hide();
   4:  
   5:     Delay(1000,
   6:           () =>
   7:           {
   8:               try
   9:               {
  10:                   BitmapSource source = ScreenCapture.GetDesktopImage();
  11:  
  12:                   if (source != null)
  13:                       screenshot.Source = source;
  14:                   else
  15:                       MessageBox.Show("Impossibile completare la cattura!");
  16:               }
  17:               catch (Exception ex)
  18:               {
  19:                   MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
  20:               }
  21:               finally
  22:               {
  23:                   Application.Current.MainWindow.Show();
  24:                   Application.Current.MainWindow.Activate();
  25:               }
  26:           });
  27: }
  28:  
  29: private void Delay(int timeout, Action action)
  30: {
  31:     Task task = new Task(
  32:         () =>
  33:         {
  34:             Thread.Sleep(timeout);
  35:  
  36:             Deployment.Current.Dispatcher.BeginInvoke(action);
  37:         });
  38:  
  39:     task.Start();
  40: }

This code minimizes the main window and then take a screenshot. Finally it reactivate the window and take it to the front. To compile this code you have to import a number of structures. The attached sample includes all the needed classes.

Download: XPG.PInvoke.zip

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Comments (1) -

October 18. 2012 10:38

Thanks!!! This saved me a day of searching and debugging!

Benny