Insert a list of image in database

Question

Hi to all,
this is the scenario:
1) Windows Server 2003 32 bit
2) Oracle 10g 32 bit
In my schema I have created 2 tables and a work dir (this dirrectory reside on the server):
CREATE TABLE MYSCHEMA.FLAGS$
  FLAGS_ISO31661A2  VARCHAR2(2 BYTE),
  FLAGS_NAME        VARCHAR2(6 BYTE)
CREATE TABLE MYSCHEMA.IMAGE_TEST
  TEST_NAME   VARCHAR2(2 BYTE),
  TEST_IMAGE  BLOB
CREATE OR REPLACE DIRECTORY
FLAGS_DIR AS
'D:\flags';
GRANT READ, WRITE ON DIRECTORY FLAGS_DIR TO MYSCHEMA WITH GRANT OPTION;The table FLAGS$ contains the ISO code (alpha 2) and the gif name of the flags; for example:
ad     ad.gif
ae     ae.gif
af     af.gif
ag     ag.gif
ai     ai.gif
al     al.gifI have also created this procedure
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE MYSCHEMA.INSERT_BLOB
AS
   vBlob    BLOB;
   vBfile   BFILE;
   CURSOR curFlags
   IS
        SELECT *
          FROM FLAGS$
      ORDER BY FLAGS_ISO31661A2;
BEGIN
   FOR vFlag IN curFlags
   LOOP
      INSERT INTO IMAGE_TEST
           VALUES (vFlag.FLAGS_ISO31661A2, EMPTY_BLOB ())
        RETURNING TEST_IMAGE
             INTO vBlob;
      vBfile := BFILENAME ('FLAGS_DIR', vFlag.FLAGS_NAME);
      DBMS_LOB.fileopen (vBfile);
      DBMS_LOB.loadfromfile (vBlob, vBfile, DBMS_LOB.getlength (vBfile));
      DBMS_LOB.fileclose (vBfile);
   END LOOP;
END;
/All is created without errors; but when I execute the INSERT_BLOB procedure this error is returned:
Error at line 1
ORA-22288: file or LOB operation FILEOPEN failed
No such file or directory.
ORA-06512: at "SYS.DBMS_LOB", line 523
ORA-06512: a "MYSCHEMA.INSERT_BLOB", line 21
ORA-06512: a line 2Note that if I use a procedure without the cursor and with the absolute value like 'ad' and 'ad.gif', all work fine.
Can someone help me ?
Thank You and Best Regards.
Gaetano

Answer 1

Modularise your code. The base module should be to insert/load a single image. Then call this module from another module that does the "bulk image" load, and use the base module to insert a single image at a time.
E.g.
create or replace procedure LoadImgage( dirObject varchar2, fileName varchar2 ) is
begin
exception when  ...
  .. e.g. raise an application error listing the filename and dirobject if an ORA-22288 occurs
end;The main code unit then simply need to call this module:
create or replace procedure LoadFlagsImages is
begin
  for c in (select ... ) loop
    LoadImage(
      dirObject => 'FLAGS_DIR',
      fileName => c.flags_name
  end loop;
exception when ..
  .. decide what to do when LoadImage() raises
  .. an exception
end;This approach will identify the problem file that fails to load. And enables the image load to be tested for that specific file only, the module to be reused elsewhere, and instrumented to record what files have been requested to load, how long the load was, number of bytes loaded, success/error code of the load, etc.
If you engineer software correctly, using modularisation, then running into the error you did is a minor event. Easily diagnosed and easily corrected.