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Load SVG files

Create an SVG document and load an SVG file

SVG defines vector-based graphics in XML format (a markup language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format which is both human-readable and machine-readable), so SVG files content can be represented as a C string.

Here is a standard C function able to load an SVG file and return a pointer to its content:

char* loadXml(const char* fileName) {

    char* buffer;
    size_t size, read;
    FILE* fp = NULL;

#if defined(_MSC_VER) && (_MSC_VER >= 1400 )
    /* make Microsoft Visual Studio happy */
    errno_t err = fopen_s(&fp, fileName, "rb");
    if ((fp == NULL) || (err != 0)) {
#else
    fp = fopen(fileName, "rb");
    if (fp == NULL) {
#endif
        return NULL;
    }

    fseek(fp, 0, SEEK_SET);
    fgetc(fp);
    if (ferror(fp) != 0) {
        fclose(fp);
        return NULL;
    }

    /* get the file size */
    fseek(fp, 0, SEEK_END);
    size = ftell(fp);
    fseek(fp, 0, SEEK_SET);
    if (size == 0) {
        fclose(fp);
        return NULL;
    }

    /* allocate a memory buffer equal to the file size */
    /* plus an additional character for the trailing '\0' */
    buffer = calloc(size + 1, sizeof(char));
    if (buffer == NULL) {
        fclose(fp);
        return NULL;
    }

    /* read the file content and store it within the memory buffer */
    read = fread(buffer, sizeof(char), size, fp);
    if (read != size) {
        free(buffer);
        fclose(fp);
        return NULL;
    }

    /* close the file and return the pointer to the memory buffer */
    fclose(fp);
    return buffer;
}
SVGTHandle loadSvg(const char* fileName) {

    SVGTHandle svgHandle = SVGT_INVALID_HANDLE;

    if (fileName != NULL) {
        /* allocate buffer and load file */
        char* buffer = (char *)loadXml(fileName);
        if (buffer != NULL) {
            /* create the SVG document */
            svgHandle = svgtDocCreate(buffer);
            /* free the allocated buffer */
            free(buffer);
        }
    }

    return svgHandle;
}

In order to render SVG contents, AmanithSVG must create an optimized in-memory representation of SVG files: a such representation is called an SVG document. It is possible to create an SVG document given its C string representation using the svgtDocCreate function:

/*
    Create and load an SVG document, specifying the whole XML string.
    Return SVGT_INVALID_HANDLE in case of errors, else a valid document handle.
*/
SVGTHandle svgtDocCreate(const char* xmlText);

So, for example, in order to let AmanithSVG to render the userInterface.svg file, it is possible to create the relative SVG document as follow:

SVGTHandle svgDoc = loadSvg("userInterface.svg");

When an SVG document is no longer necessary, its resources can be freed using the svgtDocDestroy function:

/*
    Destroy a previously created SVG document.
    Return SVGT_NO_ERROR if the operation was completed successfully, else an
    error code.
*/
SVGTErrorCode svgtDocDestroy(SVGTHandle svgDoc);

SVG files themself optionally can provide information about the appropriate viewport region for the content via the width and height XML attributes on the outermost <svg> element. Once that an SVG document has been created, the following functions could be used to retrieve the suggested viewport width/height, in pixels:

/*
    It returns a negative number (i.e. an invalid width) in the following cases:

    - the library has not previously been initialized through the svgtInit
      function

    - outermost element is not an <svg> element

    - outermost <svg> element doesn't have a 'width' attribute specified

    - outermost <svg> element has a negative 'width' attribute specified
      (e.g. width="-50")

    - outermost <svg> element has a 'width' attribute specified
      in relative measure units (i.e. em, ex, % percentage)

    In all such cases the last-error code will be set to SVGT_INVALID_SVG_ERROR.
*/
SVGTfloat svgtDocWidth(SVGTHandle svgDoc);
/*
    It returns a negative number (i.e. an invalid height) in the following cases:

    - the library has not previously been initialized through the svgtInit
      function

    - outermost element is not an <svg> element

    - outermost <svg> element doesn't have a 'height' attribute specified

    - outermost <svg> element has a negative 'height' attribute specified
    (e.g. height="-30")

    - outermost <svg> element has a 'height' attribute specified in
      relative measure units (i.e. em, ex, % percentage)

    In all such cases the last-error code will be set to SVGT_INVALID_SVG_ERROR.
*/
SVGTfloat svgtDocHeight(SVGTHandle svgDoc);