1. Managing Metadata Repositories for Oracle Analytics Server
  2. Build Your Metadata Repository
  3. Work with Logical Tables, Joins, and Columns
  4. Model Binary Large Object (BLOB) Data and Character Large Object (CLOB) Data

Model Binary Large Object (BLOB) Data and Character Large Object (CLOB) Data

Learn how to model binary large object (BLOB) data and character large object (CLOB) data in the Oracle BI repository.

CLOB data is a large plain text document in any character set. The supported BLOB image types are: GIF, PNG, TIFF, JPEG, and BMP. BLOB formats not supported are: PDF, audio, or video.

The default data type for BLOB columns after the import is LongVarBinary, while for CLOB columns it's LongVarChar. The column for the BLOB or CLOB can't exceed the the Oracle BI Server MaxFieldSize limit of 32 KB.

When configuring the physical joins create a physical join between the tables using the primary key when the primary key is used as a foreign key in the other table.

  1. Import the physical table containing the BLOB or CLOB data from the data source using the Import Metadata Wizard.
  2. After import, open the Physical Column dialog for the BLOB or CLOB column, and change the Length field.
  3. Configure physical joins.
  4. Drag the BLOB or CLOB column to the Business Model and Mapping layer to generate a logical column.
  5. Configure a physical lookup for the logical column to ensure that the Oracle BI Server doesn't generate a group by or order by on the logical column.
  6. In the Logical Column dialog on the General tab, configure the Descriptor ID column to ensure that Presentation Services uses the correct column when generating filters.
  7. Configure the Sort order column, configure the sort order column to ensure that the Oracle BI Server orders column as expected.
  8. Save the changes.