UWP BitmapImage SetSource from MemoryStream hangs

Question

In my UWP app i store images in an SQLite db in form of byte[]. Then as i retrieve my objects from the db i bind them to a GridView data template which has an Image control. As i cant bind the Image's Source directly to the array, so i have created a BitmapImage property in my object's class to bind the Image control to:

    public BitmapImage Icon
    {
        get
        {
            using (var stream = new MemoryStream(icon))
            {
                stream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
                var img = new BitmapImage();
                img.SetSource(stream.AsRandomAccessStream());
                return img;
            }
        }
    }

The problem is, my app hangs on the img.SetSource line. After some experimenting, i have found that this problem can be overcome with a second MemoryStream:

    public BitmapImage Icon
    {
        get
        {
            using (var stream = new MemoryStream(icon))
            {
                stream.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);
                var s2 = new MemoryStream();
                stream.CopyTo(s2);
                s2.Position = 0;
                var img = new BitmapImage();
                img.SetSource(s2.AsRandomAccessStream());
                s2.Dispose();
                return img;
            }
        }
    }

For some reason it works, does not hang. I wonder why? And how to deal with this situation properly? Thanks!

Answer 1

i'll suggest you use the IValueConverter interface before showing the image in your app.

class ImageConverter : IValueConverter
{
    public object Convert(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, string language)
    {
        if (value == null || !(value is byte[]))
            return null;
        using (InMemoryRandomAccessStream ms = new InMemoryRandomAccessStream())
        {
            using (DataWriter writer = new DataWriter(ms.GetOutputStreamAt(0)))
            {
                writer.WriteBytes((byte[])value);
                writer.StoreAsync().GetResults();
            }
            var image = new BitmapImage();
            image.SetSource(ms);
            return image;
        }
    }

    public object ConvertBack(object value, Type targetType, object parameter, string language)
    {
        throw new NotImplementedException();
    }
}