How do I get a byte array from HttpInputStream for

Question

I am using the method from the first answer in this post: How to create byte array from HttpPostedFile but it doesn't work for .docx files for some reason.

//viewmodel.File is HttpPostedFileBase

byte[] fileData;
using (var binaryReader = new BinaryReader(viewModel.File.InputStream))
{
    fileData = binaryReader.ReadBytes(viewModel.File.ContentLength);
}

On .docx files fileData shows as {byte[0]}, but it works with pdfs, excel files (xlsx), pre 2007 word files (doc), and images (i.e. the value is greater than zero). Saved to the database, the fileData is 0x.

How do I get a byte array from HttpInputStream for a docx file?

UPDATE
My web.config is configured with

<httpRuntime targetFramework="4.5" maxRequestLength="102400" />

This is working with xslx files bigger than 4MB but docx files less than 80KB are not.

UPDATE 2
I can get fileData to populate using the method explained here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.web.ui.webcontrols.fileupload.postedfile.aspx

byte[] fileData = new byte[viewModel.File.ContentLength];
viewModel.File.InputStream.Read(fileData, 0, viewModel.File.ContentLength);

But if I saved that byte array to the database and try to write a file, it is severely corrupt. Saved to the database in this case it looks like 0x00000000000000000000000...

UPDATE 3
Here is the whole controller method, though I don't think seeing the whole thing is necessary:

    [HttpPost]
    public ActionResult SaveChangeFile(AttachmentFormViewModel viewModel)
    {
        if (viewModel.File == null)
            return Json(new { success = false, message = "No file was found, please select a file and try again." }, "text/x-json",
                        JsonRequestBehavior.DenyGet);
        try
        {

            //Validate that the right kind of File has been uploaded
            OperationResponse response = _attachmentProcessor.ValidateAttachmentContentType(viewModel.File, (ChangeFileTypeEnum)viewModel.FileType);
            if (!response.IsSuccess)
                return Json(new { success = response.IsSuccess, message = response.Message }, "text/x-json", JsonRequestBehavior.DenyGet);

            UpdateProjectFromCostCalculatorRequest projectValues = null;

            Workbook workbook = null;
            Document document = null;

            if (_attachmentProcessor.IsWorkbook(viewModel.File))
                workbook = new Workbook(viewModel.File.InputStream);

            if (_attachmentProcessor.IsDocument(viewModel.File))
                document = new Document(viewModel.File.InputStream);

            var filename = Path.GetFileName(viewModel.File.FileName);

            //if cost calc, validate that the values are correct and update related project
            switch ((ChangeFileTypeEnum)viewModel.FileType)
            {
                case ChangeFileTypeEnum.CostCalculator:
                    response = _attachmentProcessor.ValidateCostCalculator(workbook, filename);
                    if (response.IsSuccess)
                        projectValues = _attachmentProcessor.GetDataFromCostCalculator(workbook);

                    break;
                case ChangeFileTypeEnum.DataValidation:
                    response = _attachmentProcessor.ValidateDataValidation(workbook);
                    break;
                case ChangeFileTypeEnum.WorkPaper:
                    response = _attachmentProcessor.ValidateWorkPaper(document);
                    break;
            }

            //return error message if any of the validations above failed
            if (!response.IsSuccess)
                return Json(new { success = response.IsSuccess, message = response.Message }, "text/x-json", JsonRequestBehavior.DenyGet);

            //get the file from the stream and put into a byte[] for saving the database
            byte[] fileData;
            using (var binaryReader = new BinaryReader(viewModel.File.InputStream))
            {
                fileData = binaryReader.ReadBytes(viewModel.File.ContentLength);
            }
            var file = new ChangeFile
                               {
                                   ChangeRequestID = viewModel.ChangeRequestId,
                                   ChangeFileTypeID = viewModel.FileType,
                                   File = fileData,
                                   Filename = filename,
                                   ContentType = viewModel.File.ContentType,
                                   CreatedBy = User.UserNameWithoutDomain(),
                                   UpdatedBy = User.UserNameWithoutDomain(),
                                   CreatedDate = DateTime.Now,
                                   UpdatedDate = DateTime.Now
                               };

                _changeRequestService.SaveChangeFile(file);

            var log = new ChangeFileImportLog { CreatedDate = DateTime.Now };
            switch ((ChangeFileTypeEnum)viewModel.FileType)
            {
                case ChangeFileTypeEnum.CostCalculator:
                    var project = _changeRequestService.GetChangeProjectByPsrs(file.ChangeRequestID, projectValues.PsrsNumber);
                    if (project != null)
                    {
                        _attachmentProcessor.UpdateChangeProjectWithProjectValues(project, projectValues);
                        log.NumberOfErrors = 0;
                        log.NumberOfSegmentChanges = 0;
                        log.NumberOfWarnings = 0;
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        log.NumberOfWarnings = 1;
                        log.Warnings =
                            String.Format(
                                "There is no project on this Change Request with PSRS \"{0}\". If there was, the new cost would be updated with \"{1:C0}\"",
                                projectValues.PsrsNumber, projectValues.Cost);
                    }
                    break;
                case ChangeFileTypeEnum.DataValidation:
                    log = _attachmentProcessor.CreateChangeSegmentsFromDataValidation(workbook, file.ChangeRequestID, file.ChangeFileID, User);
                    break;
                case ChangeFileTypeEnum.WorkPaper:
                    log = _attachmentProcessor.UpdateChangeProjectsFromWorkPaper(document, file.ChangeRequestID, file.ChangeFileID,
                                                                                 User);
                    break;
            }

            log.CreatedBy = User.UserNameWithoutDomain();
            log.CreatedDate = DateTime.Now;
            log.UpdatedBy = User.UserNameWithoutDomain();
            log.UpdatedDate = DateTime.Now;

            _changeRequestService.SaveChangeFileImportLog(log, file.ChangeFileID);
            _changeRequestService.Commit();
            return Json(new { success = response.IsSuccess, message = response.Message }, "text/x-json", JsonRequestBehavior.DenyGet);
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            return Json(new { success = false, message = String.Format("A system error was encountered: {0}", ex) }, "text/x-json", JsonRequestBehavior.DenyGet);

        }
    }

Answer 1

Turns out that since I am using the stream already (see the controller method in the question), it is empty when I tried to save it.

I am not sure why I experienced this with docx and not xlsx since they both have their Streams consumed before the save. My guess is it has something to do with the differences in the Aspose.Cells and Aspose.Words implementations.

Regardless, however, I set the position on the stream back to 0, and it worked.

//viewmodel.File is HttpPostedFileBase

viewModel.File.InputStream.Position = 0; //<-----This fixed it!

byte[] fileData;
using (var binaryReader = new BinaryReader(viewModel.File.InputStream))
{
    fileData = binaryReader.ReadBytes(viewModel.File.ContentLength);
}