PDF Download from PL/Sql

Question

Hi,
I am working on Oracle Database 11g and Apex 4.1.
I am using the following the code to download Excel and it is working fine.
DECLARE
  v_insert        CLOB ;
  v_download      CLOB ;
  v_length        NUMBER ;
  l_filename      VARCHAR2(100) ;
  v_blob          BLOB ;
  FUNCTION clob_to_blob_func(v_clob Clob) RETURN BLOB AS
  v_blob BLOB;
  v_in Pls_Integer := 1;
  v_out Pls_Integer := 1;
  v_lang Pls_Integer := 0;
  v_warning Pls_Integer := 0;
  v_id number(10);
  BEGIN
  dbms_lob.createtemporary(v_blob,TRUE);
  DBMS_LOB.convertToBlob(v_blob,v_clob,DBMS_lob.getlength(v_clob),
  v_in,v_out,DBMS_LOB.default_csid,v_lang,v_warning);
  RETURN V_BLOB;
  END clob_to_blob_func;
BEGIN
  v_insert := ' ' ;
  dbms_lob.append ( v_insert, '<table border ="0.5" width = "100%">' ) ;
  DBMS_LOB.APPEND ( V_INSERT, '<tr bgcolor="#909090">' ) ;
  dbms_lob.APPEND ( v_insert, '<td>Parent ID</td> <td>ID</td> <td>Number</td> <td>System</td> <td>Price</td> <td>Type</td> ' ) ;
  dbms_lob.APPEND ( v_insert, '</tr>' ) ;
  dbms_lob.append ( v_insert, '</table>' ) ; 
  v_blob := clob_to_blob_func ( v_insert ) ;
  l_filename := 'Billing Plan.xls' ;
  OWA_UTIL.mime_header ('application/octet', FALSE);
  v_length := dbms_lob.getlength ( v_blob ) ;
  htp.p ( 'Content-length: ' || v_length ) ;
  htp.p ( 'Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="' || l_filename || '"' ) ;
  owa_util.http_header_close;
  htmldb_application.g_unrecoverable_error := TRUE ;
  wpg_docload.download_file ( v_blob ) ;
END;
The issue is, I want to download the same file in PDF format. So I updated the above procedure the below two lines ,
  l_filename := 'Billing Plan.pdf' ;
  OWA_UTIL.mime_header ('application/pdf', FALSE);
But it is downloading a file but as,
Unable to Open Document
File type plain text document (text/plain) is not supported
Any suggestions on how I can download the file in PDF format.
Thanks,
Shoaib

Answer 1

You have following content in a CLOB.
<table border ="0.5" width = "100%">
<tr bgcolor="#909090">
<td>Parent ID</td> <td>ID</td> <td>Number</td> <td>System</td> <td>Price</td> <td>Type</td>
</tr>
</table>
You then convert it into BLOB. And now trying to download it as a PDF file. But you need to understand that your BLOB content is not actually a PDF content. PDF is a binary data with a specific format owned by Adobe.
So this stuff is not going to work.