Extracting Album art from MP3 files using TagLib - Is there a better way write this code?

Question

I'm using Visual Basic 9 (VS2008) and TagLib.

The following code extracts the album art from an MP3 file and displays it in a PictureBox.

Is there a better way to write this code?

 Dim file As TagLib.File = TagLib.File.Create(filepath)

 If file.Tag.Pictures.Length >= 1 Then
    Dim bin As Byte() = DirectCast(file.Tag.Pictures(0).Data.Data, Byte())
    PreviewPictureBox.Image = Image.FromStream(New MemoryStream(bin)).GetThumbnailImage(100, 100, Nothing, System.IntPtr.Zero)
 End If

Answer 1

At first glance it looks okay to me.

You could add some error handling, for example if TagLib.File.Create() throws an error or returns "Nothing". Also if the Tag property is empty for some reason, an error will be thrown if you'll try to access ".Pictures".

Answer 2

I'm not intimately familiar with TagLib but it doesn't look like there is much of a better way to write this. The only suggestion I can give is that you could reduce the amount of code by taking advantage of type inference. The two variable declarations don't need an explicit type if "Option Infer" is currently on. This doesn't actually change the quality of the code though, it just reduces the amount of it.

Example

 Option Infer On
 ...
 Dim file = TagLib.File.Create(filepath)

 If file.Tag.Pictures.Length >= 1 Then
    Dim bin = DirectCast(file.Tag.Pictures(0).Data.Data, Byte())
    PreviewPictureBox.Image = Image.FromStream(New MemoryStream(bin)).GetThumbnailImage(100, 100, Nothing, System.IntPtr.Zero)
 End If

Answer 3

Hi,

I'm trying to get an artwork to display but i'm not having any luck.

Can you send me a sample project please in vs2009 - vb?

I don't know how to use taglib :(

Help will be appreciated

[email protected]

sam

Answer 4

do you have this code in c#?