png-stash-mux

A multiplexing wrapper over png-stash, this low level tool can read and write data in the least significant bits of a series of PNG images.

Takes a list of PNG files and exposes an array-like-ish data structure to read and write buffers and bytes.

Quick Example 1: Write Data

var pngStashMux = require('png-stash-mux');

var stash = pngStashMux(['steve.png', 'benny.png'], function(err, stash) {
    if (err) throw new Error(err);

    stash.write("Itsa mee! Ontario!", function(err) {
        if (err) throw new Error(err);
        stash.save(finished);
    });

    function finished(err) {
        if (err) throw new Error(err);
        console.log("Message stored!");
    }); 
});

Quick Example 2: Read Data

var pngStashMux = require('png-stash-mux');

var stash = pngStashMux(['steve.png', 'benny.png'], function(err, stash) {
    if (err) throw new Error(err);

    stash.read(0, 18, // 18 is length of message from example 1.
               function(err, message) {
        if (err) throw new Error(err);
        console.log(message);
    });
});

For Node.js, use npm:

npm install png-stash-mux

Documentation

Constructor

• pngStashMux

Instance Functions

• getByte
• setByte
• read
• write
• save

Scans and indexes the specified PNG files, and and yields a reader-writer object with the following properties:

• length - Total number of bytes that can be hidden in the PNG files.
• getByte()
• setByte()
• write()
• read()
• save()

See below for documentation of the read-write functions.

Arguments

• pngFileNames - An array of file paths. Each file path must be for an existing valid PNG file.
• callback - function(err, stash). If the PNGs file were successfully indexed, err will be undefined. stash will be reader-writer object mentioned in description above.

Example

var pngStashMux = require('png-stash-mux');

pngStashMux(["test1.png", "test2.png"], function(err, stash) {
  console.log("Available bytes: " + stash.length);
});

Reads a single byte from the "invisible" bits of the PNG files.

May trigger a save() of previously changed data. See "Notes" below.

Arguments

• index - Position among all bytes composed by the PNGs' "invisible" bits. Must be less than the pngStashMux instance's length property.
• callback - function(err, byte). err will be undefined if read was successful. Otherwise it will represent an error. byte is the read value.

Example

var pngStashMux = require('png-stash-mux');

pngStashMux(["frame0.png", "frame1.png", "frame2.png"], function(err, stash) {
  stash.getByte(1000, function(err, b1) {
  stash.getByte(2000, function(err, b2) {
  stash.getByte(3000, function(err, b3) {
    if (b1 == 0xaa && b2 == 0x44 && b3 == 0xff) {
      console.log("Watermark detected!");
    } else {
      console.log("No watermark detected.");
    }
  })})});
});

Writes a single byte to the "invisible" bits of the PNGs, but does not immediately save it to disk. To save, call save().

May trigger a save() of previously changed data. See "Notes" below.

Arguments

• index - Position among all bytes composed by the PNGs' "invisible" bits. Must be less than the pngStash instance's length property.
• value - Byte to store. Must be an integer in the 8-bit range (0 < value < 256).
• callback - function(err). err will be undefined if save was successful. Otherwise it will represent an error.

Example

var pngStashMux = require('png-stash-mux');

pngStashMux(["frame0.png", "frame1.png", "frame2.png"], function(err, stash) {
  stash.setByte(1000, 0xaa);
  stash.setByte(2000, 0x44);
  stash.setByte(3000, 0xff);
  stash.save(function(err) {
    console.log(err || "Watermark inserted.");
  });
});

Reads a sequence of bytes from the PNGs' "invisible" bits, and returns them as a Buffer.

May trigger a save() of previously changed data. See "Notes" below.

Arguments

• offset - default=0. At which byte position to start reading from.
• length - default=stash.length. How many bytes to read.
• callback - function(err, data). err will be undefined if save was successful. Otherwise it will represent an error. data is all requested bytes in a Buffer.

Example

var pngStashMux = require('png-stash-mux');

pngStashMux(["bunny.png", "kitten.png"], function(err, stash) {
  var messageLength = stash.getByte(0) * 65536
                    + stash.getByte(1) * 256
                    + stash.getByte(2);
  var message = stash.read(messageLength, 3);
  console.log("Found message: " + message);
});

Writes a sequence of bytes to the PNGs' "invisible" bits, but does not save to disk. To save to disk, call save().

May trigger a save() of previously changed data. See "Notes" below.

Arguments

• data - Bytes to store in the PNGs. Must be string or Buffer. If string, will be UTF-8 encoded.
• offset - default=0. At which byte position to start writing to.
• length - default=all. How many bytes from data to write. Be aware that the .length of a string may not correspond to the number of bytes in its resulting UTF-8 representation.
• callback - function(err). err will be undefined if save was successful. Otherwise it will represent an error.

Example

var pngStashMux = require('png-stash-mux');

pngStash(["bunny.png", "kitten.png"], function(err, stash) {
  var message = new Buffer("Hello there!");
  stash.setByte(0, message.length >> 16 & 0xff);
  stash.setByte(1, message.length >>  8 & 0xff);
  stash.setByte(2, message.length >>  0 & 0xff);
  stash.write(message, 3);
});

Stores the PNG data back into the files. You want to call this function after writing data to the stash instance.

May be triggered sproadically as a result of other operations. See "Notes" below for details.

Arguments

• callback - function(err). err will be undefined if save was successful. Otherwise it will represent an error.

Example

// See examples for stash.write() and stash.setByte().

Notes

Will automatically save changes if an operation needs to cross file boundaries. This means that if you do not save() before shutting down, you are likely to end up with a half-stored state.