LONG_RAW conversion (using OLE) to file system then import into BLOB column

Question

To whom it may concern (I will call "hero" or "savior" if you can solve this for me),
I posted this message an another thread; but then later thought it would be better in its own thread.
I was wondering how to extract the Adobe Acrobat Reader files (PDF) from OLE component stored in a LONG_RAW database column. I was able to successfully extract the MS-Word, MS-Excel, MS-Powerpoint, and MS-Project to the operating system. I was not able to extract the Adobe PDF files. The PDF files do not return an error message nor do they write out to the file system?
Leonid previous posted some suggestions on how to convert the data. Can anyone expand on tasks #4 and #5 (see below)?
You can use this library to do the following task:
1. Get the type of an object stored inside OLE Item. Get information about the OLE server.
GetCLSID, GetProgID, IsIDispatchSupported
2. Get information about the object
IsLinked, GetSourceDisplayName
3. Get information from the object in formats supported by its IDataObject interface.
EnumFormatEtc, RegClipFormat, GetData
I suppose it's the best way to extract pictures!
4. Save the object into an external file throu IPersistFile interface. It works only if IPersistFile::Save method is implemented by the OLE server. Unfortunately, some OLE servers don't support this method even don't return a correct error code.
SaveToFile
Works with: MS Word, MS Excel
Not works with: Adobe Acrobat (I'm not sure. Maybe I've done something wrong), MS Photo Editor
5. Extract the 'Contents' stream from a structured storage /a compound document/.
ExtractToFile
It isn't a documented way, but it can be used to extract PDF files.
I have tried the following two scenarios for the PDF extraction:
-- First Attempt
ret:=OLEXTRA.SaveToFile( application, v_FILENAME_WO_EXT || '.pdf' );
if ret <> 0 then
show_message( 'SaveToFile Error code='||ret );
end if;
-- application does not return an error message
-- application does not save the PDF file to the operating system.
-- Second Attempt
ret:=OLEXTRA.ExtractToFile( application, 'stg.pdf', 'fname.pdf' );
if ret <> 0 then
show_message( 'ExtractToFile Error code='||ret );
end if;
-- application does not return an error message.
-- application does not save fname.pdf to the operating system
-- application saves the stg.pdf to file system, but cannot open in Adobe
Thanks in advance for the help,
Mike

Answer 1

There is no way from PL/SQL in Forms - you'll have to call out to C or Java Code to do it.
You can link in Pro*C or OCI code into forms as a user exit in which case it can share the forms connection but that's not for the faint hearted.
Using Java - called from the Java Importer feature in 6i+ you'll end up creating a separate connection.
Frankly if you can do it in a generic enough way through a VB executable stick with that.
Forms can get images in an out of a long raw using read_image_file and write_image_file but that does not extend to any binary file - just images.