Problem with demo : Round-Tripping XML with Oracle9i

Question

Hi,
We have recently installed a 9.2.0.1.0 database with the intention of trying some of the new XMLTYPE samples.
I downloaded the demo : Round-Tripping XML with Oracle9i.
The first part, Mapping XML into Oracle9i, worked fine.
The second part, Re-composing XML from Oracle9i, doesn't seem to run.
Here is what I get i SQLPLUS :
(Step 1 to 15 is OK)
SQL> create or replace type PURCHASEORDER_TYPE as object
2 (
3 "Reference" VARCHAR2(64),
4 "Actions" SYS.XMLTYPE,
5 "Requester" VARCHAR2(48),
6 "User" VARCHAR2(32),
7 "Reject" PURCHASEORDERREJECTION_TYPE,
8 "CostCenter" VARCHAR2(3),
9 "Vendor" VARCHAR2(32),
10 "PONumber" NUMBER(10),
11 "ShippingInstructions" PURCHASEORDERSHIPINST_TYPE,
12 "SpecialInstructions" VARCHAR2(2048),
13 "LineItems" SYS.XMLTYPE
14 );
15 /
Type created.
SQL> --script 16
SQL> create or replace view PURCHASEORDERDOCUMENTS as
2 select P.REFERENCE,
3 sys_xmlgen(
4 PURCHASEORDER_TYPE(
5 P.REFERENCE,
6 (
7 select
8 sys_xmlagg(
9 sys_xmlgen(
10 PURCHASEORDERACTION_TYPE(
11 A.ACTIONEDBY,
12 A.DATEACTIONED
13 ),
14 sys.xmlgenformattype.createFormat('Action')
15 )
16 ).extract('//Action')
17 from PURCHASEORDERACTIONS A
18 where A.REFERENCE = P.REFERENCE
19 ),
20 P.REQUESTER,
21 P.USERID,
22 PURCHASEORDERREJECTION_TYPE(
23 R.REJECTEDBY,
24 R.DATEREJECTED,
25 R.COMMENTS
26 ),
27 P.COSTCENTER,
28 P.VENDOR,
29 P.PONUMBER,
30 PURCHASEORDERSHIPINST_TYPE(
31 S.SHIPTONAME,
32 S.ADDRESS,
33 S.PHONE
34 ),
35 P.SPECIALINSTRUCTIONS,
36 (
37 select
38 sys_xmlagg(
39 sys_xmlgen(
40 PURCHASEORDERLINEITEM_TYPE(
41 L.LINENO,
42 L.DESCRIPTION,
43 PURCHASEORDERPART_TYPE(
44 L.PARTNO,
45 L.QUANTITY,
46 L.UNITPRICE
47 )
48 ),
49 sys.xmlgenformattype.createFormat('LineItem')
50 ),
51 sys.xmlgenformattype.createFormat('LineItems')
52 )
53 from PURCHASEORDERLINEITEMS L
54 where P.REFERENCE = L.REFERENCE
55 )
56 ),
57 sys.xmlgenformattype.createFormat('PurchaseOrder')
58 ) "PODOCUMENT"
59 from PURCHASEORDERSTORE P,
60 PURCHASEORDERREJECTION R,
61 PURCHASEORDERSHIPINSTRUCTIONS S
62 where R.REFERENCE = P.REFERENCE
63 and S.REFERENCE = P.REFERENCE;
View created.
SQL> --script 17
SQL> set heading off;
SQL> set wrap on
SQL> set pagesize 10000;
SQL> set long 10000;
SQL> select P.PODOCUMENT.getClobVal() from PURCHASEORDERDOCUMENTS P;
select P.PODOCUMENT.getClobVal() from PURCHASEORDERDOCUMENTS P
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-06502: PL/SQL: numeric or value error
ORA-06512: at line 1
Has anyone had the same problem ?? I would appreciate any suggestions.
Thanks,
Frank

Answer 1

I found the solution :
The database was running with a multibyte characterset (UTF8).
After changing that to WE8ISO8859P1 everything worked fine.
It is strange that Oracle suggest to use UTF8 when installing the new database (9i)
and on the other hand doesn't support multibyte charactersets for several of the XML-products.
Cheers,
Frank