Is There a way to Copy or Move a File Without a BLOB?

Question

I have a requirement for an ApEx application that can move documents, ie .xls, .doc, and et cetera, from one location to another.
I am posting this here rather than the ApEx forum because I expect the solution might be in PL/SQL.
Essentially, we want to build a custom document control/tracking system.
A user creates a document, maybe Excel, maybe Power Point, and they save it in their local documents.
In the application, the user will "browse" to the file to identify it and answer a few identifying questions like who requested the document and which customer it pertains to.
The name of the document and the answers to the questions will be stored in a DB table, and the file will be saved to a more "public" location in its native format.
I realize there are probably apps on the market that do this, but this is to be built in-house.
We don't want to save the files as blobs in the database due to concerns about how DB speed might be impacted as more and more documents get added.
So, is there a utility for moving files. Alternatively, is there a way to execute OS commands, like mv, to move the files?
Thanks,
Gregory

Answer 1

Gregory Hansen wrote:
As for the BLOB, that's the option I'm pushing for, but ultimately it's not up to me. I'll be sure to pass your comments along because I really don't think a BLOB column is going to have a significant impact on performance. If the DB has performance issues they're more likely to be related to tuning problems.I've also run into resistance in storing files as BLOBs.
There are several factors to consider and unfortunately these seem to be ignored by some developers.
BLOBs are designed to store binary data. It is no different in that respect than using a file on a file system to store binary data.
Unlike a file though, you can easily add additional attribute data to the BLOB. You can secure access to it via custom means (fine grain access control and virtual private databases come to mind) that is usually impossible to do with a file system.
Access to that file needs to be via the o/s - and that is a problem for client-server as it means requiring some kind of server s/w to sit between that o/s file and the client to manage access. E.g. NFS, Samba, FTP, etc. All these have very specific security controls - most of which do not neatly fit the security model designed for the application layer.
A BLOB instead is access via the database - using the same protocol and session and security that the client uses to access any other database data.
Performance wise.. bytes is bytes. Reading a BLOB from a database will not be slower than reading a file from the file system. A BLOB is not going to take up more space (it may actually have a smaller space footprint, depending on file size and block size).
There are numerous advantages - as a BLOB is accessed via the same concurrency controls as any other database data. In comparison, how do you deal with transaction and concurrency controls from a client that accesses a file via Samba/Microsoft Networking?
The list does not stop there. There are also auditing to consider, and the management and ease of backup and restore, portability (a BLOB in Oracle can be accessed from any Oracle client and does not need additional and specific s/w to support that particular server's means of sharing o/s files), etc.
IMO, the so-called cons about BLOBs are often just ignorance on the part of the developers. Ignorance about client-server architecture and ignorance about the feature set BLOBs enjoy in Oracle.