# How to get the MD5 of a FolderItem **URL:** \ **Category:** General\ **Created:** [March 14, 2017, 2:38pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/how-to-get-the-md5-of-a-folderitem/36633 "2017-03-14T14:38:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![GarryPettet](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/garrypettet/32/31_2.png) [@GarryPettet](https://forum.xojo.com/u/GarryPettet)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 2:38pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/how-to-get-the-md5-of-a-folderitem/36633/1 "2017-03-14T14:38:51Z")
I see that Xojo has a built in Crypto function to find the MD5 digest from a MemoryBlock. Given a FolderItem, how would I find the file’s MD5 digest? I’m not sure how to convert a file to a MemoryBlock. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_Parnell](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/tim_parnell/32/161_2.png) [@Tim\_Parnell](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Tim_Parnell)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 2:40pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/how-to-get-the-md5-of-a-folderitem/36633/2 "2017-03-14T14:40:14Z")
This is one of the reasons I like the old framework. Strings can be used as memory blocks without much work. Depending on the size of your FolderItem, you can ReadAll into a string, then use the string for MD5. Alternatively, if it’s Mac only, you can use Shell to md5 a file. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_Parnell](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/tim_parnell/32/161_2.png) [@Tim\_Parnell](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Tim_Parnell)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 2:42pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/how-to-get-the-md5-of-a-folderitem/36633/3 "2017-03-14T14:42:50Z")
I would test to be sure you get the same result between Terminal.app and my ReadAll into a string method though. ---
**Author:** ![Kem\_Tekinay](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/kem_tekinay/32/154_2.png) [@Kem\_Tekinay](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Kem_Tekinay)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 2:45pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/how-to-get-the-md5-of-a-folderitem/36633/4 "2017-03-14T14:45:00Z")
Or read the file in chunks. This is how I did it in Kaju… ```auto Protected Function HashOfFile(f As FolderItem) as String if f is nil or not f.IsReadable then return "" end if dim bs as BinaryStream = BinaryStream.Open( f ) const kBlock = 1000000 dim hasher as new MD5Digest while not bs.EOF dim chunk as string = bs.Read( kBlock ) hasher.Process( chunk ) wend return EncodeHex( hasher.Value ) Exception err as RuntimeException return "" End Function ``` ---
**Author:** ![GarryPettet](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/garrypettet/32/31_2.png) [@GarryPettet](https://forum.xojo.com/u/GarryPettet)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 2:45pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/how-to-get-the-md5-of-a-folderitem/36633/5 "2017-03-14T14:45:02Z")
The files vary in size from about 1Mb to 100Mb. Guessing that’s maybe too big for a String? Needs to work on Windows too I’m afraid. If I go the new framework route, do I need to read the whole file in as a BinaryStream then convert that to a MemoryBlock then Hash it? Seems like a lot of effort… ---
**Author:** ![GarryPettet](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/garrypettet/32/31_2.png) [@GarryPettet](https://forum.xojo.com/u/GarryPettet)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 2:46pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/how-to-get-the-md5-of-a-folderitem/36633/6 "2017-03-14T14:46:33Z")
@Kem Tekinay What’s the advantage of chunking the read? ---
**Author:** ![Kem\_Tekinay](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/kem_tekinay/32/154_2.png) [@Kem\_Tekinay](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Kem_Tekinay)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 2:47pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/how-to-get-the-md5-of-a-folderitem/36633/7 "2017-03-14T14:47:43Z")
You don’t have to load the entire file into memory, instead just loading manageable blocks. ---
**Author:** ![GarryPettet](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/garrypettet/32/31_2.png) [@GarryPettet](https://forum.xojo.com/u/GarryPettet)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 3:01pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/how-to-get-the-md5-of-a-folderitem/36633/8 "2017-03-14T15:01:13Z")
Any way of doing this new framework only (so it works on iOS)? ---
**Author:** ![Christian\_Schmitz](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/christian_schmitz/32/158_2.png) [@Christian\_Schmitz](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Christian_Schmitz)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 3:28pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/how-to-get-the-md5-of-a-folderitem/36633/9 "2017-03-14T15:28:55Z")
Mac? Win? Linux? MD5DigestMBS.HashFile function is fast and uses preemptive threading, so if used in a Xojo thread, it can do the work in background. ---
**Author:** ![Kem\_Tekinay](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/kem_tekinay/32/154_2.png) [@Kem\_Tekinay](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Kem_Tekinay)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 3:39pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/how-to-get-the-md5-of-a-folderitem/36633/10 "2017-03-14T15:39:58Z")
I don’t see an MD5Digest equivalent in the new framework yet so you’d have to do it with OS calls. (I haven’t researched to see what might be available.) ---
**Author:** ![Norman\_P](https://forum.xojo.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/858c86/32.png) [@Norman\_P](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Norman_P)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 3:59pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/how-to-get-the-md5-of-a-folderitem/36633/11 "2017-03-14T15:59:37Z")
> [@320466:@Christian Schmitz](#): > > Mac? Win? Linux? > [@320462:@Garry Pettet](#): > > Any way of doing this new framework only (so it works on iOS)? Meaning MBS isn’t an option ---
**Author:** ![Christian\_Schmitz](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/christian_schmitz/32/158_2.png) [@Christian\_Schmitz](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Christian_Schmitz)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 4:00pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/how-to-get-the-md5-of-a-folderitem/36633/12 "2017-03-14T16:00:01Z")
for iOS and Mac you could use my Encryption Kit: [http://www.monkeybreadsoftware.de/xojo/EncryptionKit/](http://www.monkeybreadsoftware.de/xojo/EncryptionKit/) ---
**Author:** ![Christian\_Schmitz](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/christian_schmitz/32/158_2.png) [@Christian\_Schmitz](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Christian_Schmitz)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 4:01pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/how-to-get-the-md5-of-a-folderitem/36633/13 "2017-03-14T16:01:49Z")
> [@320475:@Norman Palardy](#): > > Meaning MBS isn’t an option Well, most times not all options are available for all cases. So we use a lot of #if in our code. Plugin is available for Mac+Win+Linux and supports preemptive threading. The Kit is available for Mac+IOS and supports various hashes including MD5. But as Xojo on iOS is limited in multithreading, he may need to use a Xojo thread and a binary stream and feed the digest engine chunk by chunk. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_Parnell](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/tim_parnell/32/161_2.png) [@Tim\_Parnell](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Tim_Parnell)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 4:11pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/how-to-get-the-md5-of-a-folderitem/36633/14 "2017-03-14T16:11:51Z")
> [@320471:@Kem Tekinay](#): > > I don’t see an MD5Digest equivalent in the new framework yet so you’d have to do it with OS calls. (I haven’t researched to see what might be available.) [http://developer.xojo.com/xojo-crypto$MD5](http://developer.xojo.com/xojo-crypto$MD5) It’s at least possible to MD5 in the new framework. I’m not sure about chunking it though. Edit: Added quote for reference, and extra details. ---
**Author:** ![Christian\_Schmitz](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/christian_schmitz/32/158_2.png) [@Christian\_Schmitz](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Christian_Schmitz)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 4:32pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/how-to-get-the-md5-of-a-folderitem/36633/15 "2017-03-14T16:32:08Z")
Sorry for my posts. I though the point was how to quickly process MD5 of file. I wrote the plugin functions once to process that with 8 cores busy in a threaded app myself. If you don’t need threading on desktop, the built in function is fine of course. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_Parnell](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/tim_parnell/32/161_2.png) [@Tim\_Parnell](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Tim_Parnell)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 4:33pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/how-to-get-the-md5-of-a-folderitem/36633/16 "2017-03-14T16:33:56Z")
I was supplementing Kem’s post, I probably should have quoted it. It’s good to know that MBS on Desktop can handle the harder stuff in threads. Thank you for your additions 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![GarryPettet](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/garrypettet/32/31_2.png) [@GarryPettet](https://forum.xojo.com/u/GarryPettet)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 4:43pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/how-to-get-the-md5-of-a-folderitem/36633/17 "2017-03-14T16:43:15Z")
These are all good points. Sadly they highlight the difficulties that the new framework brings. It looks like the new `Xojo.Crypto.Hash()` method will calculate a MD5 digest on a `Xojo.Core.MemoryBlock` (which you can get from a `Xojo.IO.FolderItem` by reading it as a `Xojo.IO.BinaryStream`) but I can’t for the life of me find an equivalent of the classic framework `EncodeHex()` to convert the `Xojo.Core.MemoryBlock` returned by the new framework `Hash()` method into a Hex value I could display to the user. Here’s what I have so far: [code]Public Function FileToMD5(file as Xojo.IO.FolderItem) as Text ’ Returns the MD5 hash value for this file. ’ Returns “” if there’s an error. using xojo.Core using xojo.Crypto dim data as xojo.Core.MemoryBlock dim bs as xojo.IO.BinaryStream dim result as xojo.Core.MemoryBlock ’ Sanity check if file is Nil or file.IsFolder or not file.IsReadable then return “” end if ’ Open the file and read it into a MemoryBlock bs = Xojo.IO.BinaryStream.Open(file, xojo.IO.BinaryStream.LockModes.Read) data = bs.Read(bs.Length) bs.Close() result = Hash(data, xojo.Crypto.HashAlgorithms.MD5) ’ \<— Convert to Hex??? exception err as RuntimeException return “” End Function[/code] Any ideas how to get the hash as a user-readable Text object? ---
**Author:** ![Christian\_Schmitz](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/christian_schmitz/32/158_2.png) [@Christian\_Schmitz](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Christian_Schmitz)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 4:46pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/how-to-get-the-md5-of-a-folderitem/36633/18 "2017-03-14T16:46:07Z")
You could write your own EncodeHex function. I don’t see one in the new framework. ---
**Author:** ![Norman\_P](https://forum.xojo.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/n/858c86/32.png) [@Norman\_P](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Norman_P)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 4:46pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/how-to-get-the-md5-of-a-folderitem/36633/19 "2017-03-14T16:46:21Z")
iterate each uint8, use toHex on each one & concatenate them together ```auto result = Hash(data, xojo.Crypto.HashAlgorithms.MD5) ' <--- Convert to Hex???? dim strResult as text For i As Integer = 0 To result.size()-1 strResult = strResult + if(result.UInt8Value(i)<10, "0" + result.UInt8Value(i).toHex, result.UInt8Value(i).toHex) Next return strResult ``` ---
**Author:** ![Kem\_Tekinay](https://forum.xojo.com/user_avatar/forum.xojo.com/kem_tekinay/32/154_2.png) [@Kem\_Tekinay](https://forum.xojo.com/u/Kem_Tekinay)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2017, 5:31pm UTC](https://forum.xojo.com/t/how-to-get-the-md5-of-a-folderitem/36633/20 "2017-03-14T17:31:38Z")
Also search the forum for alternatives. I remember that we covered EncodeHex once upon a time. [Next page](https://forum.xojo.com/t/how-to-get-the-md5-of-a-folderitem/36633.md?page=2)