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What if you had a client who has a big product catalog you're integrating with the web.  You work out a convention for how data is displayed and want to generate some test images for yourself...

First, just some basics on generating a single image:

import clr
clr.AddReference("System.Drawing")
from System import *
from System.Drawing import *

def GenerateImage(text):
    starter = Bitmap(1,1)
    g = Graphics.FromImage(starter)
    f = Font("Arial", 14) 
    theImage = Bitmap(starter, Size(200,200))
    g = Graphics.FromImage(theImage)
    g.Clear(Color.Orange)
    g.DrawString(text, f, SolidBrush(Color.DarkBlue), 0, 0)
    g.Flush()
    theImage.Save("c:\\temp\\pyImage.gif")    

if __name__ == "__main__":
    GenerateImage("Holly was a hunter")

Here's some TSQL for the sample data I'll use:

create table testdata(
    testid int identity(1,1), 
    testvalue varchar(50)
)

declare @i int
set @i = 0
while @i < 25 begin
    insert into testdata(testvalue)
        values('PRODUCT ' + convert(varchar(2), @i))
    set @i = @i + 1
end

Now for a finalized version that hits the database and generates images:

import clr
clr.AddReference("System.Drawing")
clr.AddReference("System.Data")

from System import *
from System.Drawing import *
from System.Data import *
from System.Data.SqlClient import *

def GenerateImage(text, path):
    starter = Bitmap(1,1)
    g = Graphics.FromImage(starter)
    f = Font("Arial", 14) 
    theImage = Bitmap(starter, Size(200,200))
    g = Graphics.FromImage(theImage)
    g.Clear(Color.Orange)
    g.DrawString(text, f, SolidBrush(Color.DarkBlue), 0, 0)
    g.Flush()
    theImage.Save(path)
    
def GenerateImagesFromDatabase(connectString, query, sourceColumn, outPath):
    cn = SqlConnection(connectString)
    cn.Open()
    cmd = SqlCommand(query, cn)
    r = cmd.ExecuteReader(CommandBehavior.CloseConnection)
    while r.Read():
        baseText = r[sourceColumn].ToString()
        GenerateImage(baseText, outPath + "\\" + baseText + ".gif")
    r.Close()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    connect = "Data Source=.\\sqlexpress;Initial Catalog=MVCBaby;Integrated Security=SSPI;"
    sql = "select * from testdata"
    col = "testvalue"
    GenerateImagesFromDatabase(connect, sql, col, "c:\\temp\\fobot")

Pretty cool stuff, I hope it's useful to more people than just myself.  Download the first script here, the second more elaborate one here.

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