Saving POST binary data with ADODB.Stream - asp-classic

Question

Another website sends me data with the POST method.
I would like to take this data and insert it into the database.
After some research online, I concluded that ADODB.Stream should do the job for me.
I dont have problem with getting the binary data with Request.TotalBytes.
With the following code, I am not receiving an error but it does not save the data either. So I must be doing something wrong with the ADODB Stream.
tot_bytes = Request.TotalBytes
Set BinaryStream = CreateObject("ADODB.Stream")
BinaryStream.Mode = 3
BinaryStream.Type = 1
BinaryStream.Open
gBinaryData = BinaryStream.Write(tot_bytes)
BinaryStream.Close
Set BinaryStream = Nothing
SQL = "INSERT INTO STATUSES (StatusMessage, StatusDateEntered) VALUES ('"& gBinaryData &"', '"& FormatDateMySQL(NOW) &"')"
Set objAddC = objConn.execute(SQL)
.
Following a successful subscription, Facebook will proceed to call your endpoint every time that there are changes (to the chosen fields or connections). For each update, it will make an HTTP POST request.
The request will have content type of application/json and the body will comprise a JSON-encoded string containing one or more changes.
Note for PHP developers: In PHP, to get the encoded data you would use the following code:
$data = file_get_contents("php://input");
$json = json_decode($data);

Answer 1

First of all, Write method does not return anything, in fact it's just a sub-routine. And Request.TotalBytes is just length of request in bytes. When you need to read request data as array of bytes, you should use Request.BinaryRead(length of bytes). Therefore, in Stream object, you need to read all of bytes using Read method after the writing bytes and setting position to the start.
However, it seems not neccessary in this case if you have to store the data as binary.
I assume that you need the data as text, most likely it's json string. So, you should convert data to string from bytes.
Note that, you need to handle an exception about total bytes. If the Request does not contain anything, Request.TotalBytes equals to zero and since Request.BinaryRead expects a number bigger than zero and less than or equal to total bytes an error occurs.
Dim tot_bytes, postData
tot_bytes = Request.TotalBytes
If tot_bytes > 0 Then
With Server.CreateObject("Adodb.Stream")
.Charset = "utf-8" 'specify the request encoding
.Type = 1 'adTypeBinary, a binary stream
.Open
.Write Request.BinaryRead(tot_bytes) 'Write bytes
.Position = 0 ' set position to the start
.Type = 2 ' adTypeText, stream type is text now
postData = .ReadText 'read all text
.Close
End With
With Server.CreateObject("Adodb.Recordset")
.Open "STATUSES", objConn , , 3
.AddNew
.Fields("StatusMessage").Value = postData
.Fields("StatusDateEntered").Value = Now()
.Update
.Close
End With
Response.Write "data stored successfully"
Else
Response.Write "no post data"
End If

Answer 2

Beside the fact that it is a very bad idea to directly insert your data into a database like this (possible sql injection), how do you post for form data? CLassic ASP can not handle binary data directly either. So this won't work at all.
So whatever you post, first you have to make sure that you post with form enctype="multiform/data".
To get the data into a object try this instead:
byteArray = Request.BinaryRead(Request.TotalBytes)
BUt to handle it, store to database, or save to a file, you need a component, e.g. http://www.motobit.com/help/scptutl/upload.asp or try check this article (special when you upload more thatn just one file): http://www.codeguru.com/csharp/.net/net_asp/article.php/c19297/Pure-ASP-File-Upload.htm.
EDIT:
Antonin Fuller has also made a sample ASP code without using his DLL.
Try this, too:
Private Function RSBinaryToString(xBinary)
'Antonin Foller, http://www.motobit.com
'RSBinaryToString converts binary data (VT_UI1 | VT_ARRAY Or MultiByte string)
'to a string (BSTR) using ADO recordset
Dim Binary
'MultiByte data must be converted To VT_UI1 | VT_ARRAY first.
If vartype(xBinary)=8 Then Binary = MultiByteToBinary(xBinary) Else Binary = xBinary
Dim RS, LBinary
Const adLongVarChar = 201
Set RS = CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")
LBinary = LenB(Binary)
If LBinary>0 Then
RS.Fields.Append "mBinary", adLongVarChar, LBinary
RS.Open
RS.AddNew
RS("mBinary").AppendChunk Binary
RS.Update
RSBinaryToString = RS("mBinary")
Else
RSBinaryToString = ""
End If
End Function
See more here: http://www.motobit.com/tips/detpg_binarytostring/
Finally you should get the stream, convert it, and work with it.