c# -  characters appended to the beginning of each file

Question

I've downloaded an HttpHandler class that concatenates JS files into one file and it keeps appending the ??? characters at the start of each file it concatenates.

Any ideas on what is causing this? Could it be that onces the files processed they are written to the cache and that's how the cache is storing/rendering it?

Any inputs would be greatly appreciated.

using System;
using System.Net;
using System.IO;
using System.IO.Compression;
using System.Text;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Web;

public class HttpCombiner : IHttpHandler {

    private const bool DO_GZIP = false;
    private readonly static TimeSpan CACHE_DURATION = TimeSpan.FromDays(30);

    public void ProcessRequest (HttpContext context) {

        HttpRequest request = context.Request;

        // Read setName, contentType and version. All are required. They are
        // used as cache key
        string setName = request["s"] ?? string.Empty;
        string contentType = request["t"] ?? string.Empty;
        string version = request["v"] ?? string.Empty;

        // Decide if browser supports compressed response
        bool isCompressed = DO_GZIP && this.CanGZip(context.Request);

        // Response is written as UTF8 encoding. If you are using languages
        // like Arabic, you should change this to proper encoding 
        UTF8Encoding encoding = new UTF8Encoding(false);

        // If the set has already been cached, write the response directly
        // from cache. Otherwise generate the response and cache it
        if (!this.WriteFromCache(context, setName, version, isCompressed,
            contentType))
        {
            using (MemoryStream memoryStream = new MemoryStream(5000))
            {
                // Decide regular stream or GZipStream based on whether the
                // response can be cached or not
                using (Stream writer = isCompressed
                    ? (Stream)(new GZipStream(memoryStream,
                        CompressionMode.Compress))
                    : memoryStream)
                {
                    // Load the files defined in <appSettings> and process
                    // each file
                    string setDefinition = System.Configuration
                        .ConfigurationManager.AppSettings[setName] ?? "";
                    string[] fileNames = setDefinition.Split(
                        new char[] { ',' }, 
                        StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);

                    foreach (string fileName in fileNames)
                    {
                        byte[] fileBytes = this.GetFileBytes(
                            context, fileName.Trim(), encoding);
                        writer.Write(fileBytes, 0, fileBytes.Length);
                    }

                    writer.Close();
                }

                // Cache the combined response so that it can be directly
                // written in subsequent calls 
                byte[] responseBytes = memoryStream.ToArray();
                context.Cache.Insert(
                    GetCacheKey(setName, version, isCompressed),
                    responseBytes, null,
                    System.Web.Caching.Cache.NoAbsoluteExpiration,
                    CACHE_DURATION);

                // Generate the response
                this.WriteBytes(responseBytes, context, isCompressed,
                    contentType);
            }
        }
    }

    private byte[] GetFileBytes(HttpContext context, string virtualPath,
        Encoding encoding)
    {
        if (virtualPath.StartsWith("http://",
            StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase))
        {
            using (WebClient client = new WebClient())
            {
                return client.DownloadData(virtualPath);
            }
        }
        else
        {
            string physicalPath = context.Server.MapPath(virtualPath);
            byte[] bytes = File.ReadAllBytes(physicalPath);
            // TODO: Convert unicode files to specified encoding.
            // For now, assuming files are either ASCII or UTF8
            return bytes;
        }
    }

    private bool WriteFromCache(HttpContext context, string setName,
        string version, bool isCompressed, string contentType)
    {
        byte[] responseBytes = context.Cache[GetCacheKey(setName, version,
            isCompressed)] as byte[];

        if (null == responseBytes || 0 == responseBytes.Length) return false;

        this.WriteBytes(responseBytes, context, isCompressed, contentType);
        return true;
    }

    private void WriteBytes(byte[] bytes, HttpContext context, 
        bool isCompressed, string contentType)
    {
        HttpResponse response = context.Response;

        response.AppendHeader("Content-Length", bytes.Length.ToString());
        response.ContentType = contentType;
        if (isCompressed)
            response.AppendHeader("Content-Encoding", "gzip");

        context.Response.Cache.SetCacheability(HttpCacheability.Public);
        context.Response.Cache.SetExpires(DateTime.Now.Add(CACHE_DURATION));
        context.Response.Cache.SetMaxAge(CACHE_DURATION);
        context.Response.Cache.AppendCacheExtension(
            "must-revalidate, proxy-revalidate");

        response.OutputStream.Write(bytes, 0, bytes.Length);
        response.Flush();
    }

    private bool CanGZip(HttpRequest request)
    {
        string acceptEncoding = request.Headers["Accept-Encoding"];
        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(acceptEncoding) &&
             (acceptEncoding.Contains("gzip")
                 || acceptEncoding.Contains("deflate")))
            return true;
        return false;
    }

    private string GetCacheKey(string setName, string version,
        bool isCompressed)
    {
        return "HttpCombiner." + setName + "." + version + "." + isCompressed;
    }

    public bool IsReusable
    {
        get { return true; }
    }
}

Answer 1

The ??? characters are the UTF BOM markers.