8.13 Understanding BLOB Support in Forms and Reports
Oracle APEX includes declarative BLOB
support to enable developers to declaratively upload files in forms, and download or display files in reports.
BLOB
display and download can also be authored procedurally using
PL/SQL. This section describes how to upload,
download and display files, and how to manage
additional file attributes such as
MIME
type and file name that are
important for proper management of files stored in
BLOB
columns. Using this
functionality, you can easily extend your APEX applications to manage files including images,
documents, videos, and so on.
- About BLOB Support in Reports
Oracle APEX includesBLOB
support for both classic and interactive reports. - Including a Download Link
Include a download link in a report by adding columns to your report query. - Displaying a BLOB Image in a Report
Display aBLOB
image in a report by adding columns to your report query. - About Working With BLOBs Procedurally
As an alternative to using the built-in methods of providing a download link, use theAPEX_UTIL.GET_BLOB_FILE_SRC
function. - About Other Declarative Download Options
Learn about other declarative options to download files.
Parent topic: Developing Reports
8.13.1 About BLOB Support in Reports
Oracle APEX includes BLOB
support for both classic and interactive
reports.
If you use a wizard to create a report and include a column of type
BLOB
, this column will not be included in the report definition. To
include a BLOB
download link, additional attributes have to be
configured after generation to provide the download capability.
Parent topic: Understanding BLOB Support in Forms and Reports
8.13.2 Including a Download Link
Include a download link in a report by adding columns to your report query.
By default, BLOB
columns do not display in a report.
Reports that include a BLOB
column will display the text
[unsupported data type]
for the column. To include a download
link in a report, you need to add a number column to your report query and select
the display type Download BLOB.
To include a download link:
Parent topic: Understanding BLOB Support in Forms and Reports
8.13.3 Displaying a BLOB Image in a Report
Display a BLOB
image in a report by adding columns to your
report query.
If the BLOB
you are working with is an image, you can
display it in a report using the display type Display Image.
To display a BLOB that is an image in a report:
Parent topic: Understanding BLOB Support in Forms and Reports
8.13.4 About Working With BLOBs Procedurally
As an alternative to using the built-in methods of providing a download link, use the
APEX_UTIL.GET_BLOB_FILE_SRC
function.
One advantage of using the APEX_UTIL.GET_BLOB_FILE_SRC
function is the ability to more specifically format the display of the image (with height and width tags). Note that this approach is only valid if called from a valid Oracle APEX session. Also, this method requires that the parameters that describe the BLOB
to be listed as the format of a valid item within the application. That item is then referenced by the function.
Parent topic: Understanding BLOB Support in Forms and Reports
8.13.5 About Other Declarative Download Options
Learn about other declarative options to download files.
Oracle APEX also offers other declarative options to download files, such as a built-in processes or dynamic action plug-ins. Each of these solutions offer simple downloads based on a SQL query you provide.
Parent topic: Understanding BLOB Support in Forms and Reports