Download File from Directory

Question

Is there an easy way to have a stored procedure download a file from an oracle directory.
I create a directory like so:
create or replace directory MY_DIR as '/tmp'
/I place a file in it: data.csv
I have a button on a page with a link target of url and a url like: #OWNER#.download_csv('data.csv')
I have tried to use the howto on uploading and downloading files as a guide. But I'm trying to avoid having to create a table to first upload my file into before downloading.
Any ideas?

Answer 1

Denes,
Yes, I use java to scan the directories.
Getting directory listings is pretty much the only thing I use java for.
I modified a procedure I found on AskTom.
1. I don't get the mime_type. Since it's for my own use, I assume that all the files I scan are 'audio/x-mp3'.
But, having a table that maps file extensions to mime types wouldn't be hard to implement.
Here's a list: http://www.w3schools.com/media/media_mimeref.asp
2. I am only scanning local drives. (And I'm using 10.1.0.3)
I imagine that some permissions would need to be set to access remote files.
http://download-east.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/java.102/b14187/chnine.htm#BABBIAGC
Also, even if java can read the remote files, Oracle might not be able to read a BLOB from a remote file.
Then you'd have to load your BLOB through java too.
3. I am only saving the file name, but I do check the isDirectory attribute to recurse through sub folders.
The java File object has access to all of the other file attributes too, like size and modification date, etc.
Here is my java stored proc. It inserts the list of files it finds to a temp table.
I have PL/SQL procedures that take the list of files and
create Oracle directory objects and add entries to a table with a BFILE column.
create or replace and compile java source named mp3list as
import java.io.*;
import java.sql.*;
    public class MP3List
    public static void clearList() throws SQLException
       #sql { DELETE FROM TEMP_LIST};   
    public static void getTracks(String directory) throws SQLException
       File path = new File(directory);
       File[] FileList = path.listFiles();
       String TheFile;
       Timestamp ModiDate;
       for(int i = 0; i < FileList.length; i++)
           TheFile = FileList.getAbsolutePath();
if (FileList[i].isFile() ) {
#sql { INSERT INTO TEMP_LIST (FILENAME)
VALUES (:TheFile ) };
if (FileList[i].isDirectory() ) {
getTracks(TheFile);
public static void getAllTracks(String directory) throws SQLException
clearList();
getTracks(directory);
This is the PL/SQL wrapper for it:
procedure get_all_tracks( p_directory in varchar2 )
as language java
name 'MP3List.getAllTracks( java.lang.String )'; Doug