Puttin Images Into the Database

Question

I am designing an artists painting archive.
I have been able to introduce non-database images into a part of the template, utilizing HTML . GREAT!! ---- BUT, I'm not really understanding how to database the images themselves. I think I have the relevant code/instructions below.
Could anybody help me "see" these instructions (below) a little better? I think I'm missing something. My confusion starts with the table -- what exactly should it look like?
Thanks,
Osunga

Answer 1

First (make sure that you are logged in as the ADMIN for the ApEx Schema)
Create the table and indexes
create table TS_IMAGES (
IMAGE_ID number not null,
NAME varchar2(200) not null,
FILENAME varchar2(200),
MIME_TYPE varchar2(255),
DOC_SIZE number,
CREATED_BY varchar2(255),
CREATED_ON date,
CONTENT_TYPE varchar2(128),
BLOB_CONTENT blob null
create unique index UK_TS_IMAGE_ID on TS_IMAGES( IMAGE_ID )
create unique index UK_TS_IMAGE_NAME on TS_IMAGES( NAME )
--Now create the display procedure
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE ts_image_display (p_id IN NUMBER)
AS
l_mime VARCHAR2 (255);
l_length NUMBER;
l_file_name VARCHAR2 (200);
l_blob BLOB;
BEGIN
SELECT MIME_TYPE, BLOB_CONTENT, NAME, DBMS_LOB.getlength (BLOB_CONTENT)
INTO l_mime, l_blob, l_file_name, l_length
FROM TS_IMAGES
WHERE IMAGE_ID = p_id;
OWA_UTIL.mime_header (NVL (l_mime, 'application/octet'), FALSE);
HTP.p ('Content-length: ' || l_length);
OWA_UTIL.http_header_close;
WPG_DOCLOAD.download_file (l_blob);
END ts_image_display;
--DON'T forget this!!!!
GRANT EXECUTE ON ts_image_display to PUBLIC;
Next create your page and region with a FILE BROWSE item and UPLOAD button. Have the UPLOAD button trigger this PL/SQL procedure
(I threw in a few of my own fields as well)
declare
i NUMBER;
begin
--copy the image from wwv_flow_files to ts_cab_card_img
insert into TS_IMAGES (
IMAGE_ID, NAME, FILENAME, MIME_TYPE, DOC_SIZE, CREATED_BY,
CREATED_ON, CONTENT_TYPE, BLOB_CONTENT)
select ID, NAME, FILENAME, MIME_TYPE, DOC_SIZE, CREATED_BY,
CREATED_ON, CONTENT_TYPE, BLOB_CONTENT
from wwv_flow_files
where NAME = :P10_NAME;
--get the ID for the corrollary table
select IMAGE_ID into i
from TS_IMAGES
where NAME = :P10_NAME;
--add corrollary data to secondary table
insert into TS_CAB_CARD_DATA (IMAGE_ID, VIN, LICENSE, LICENSE_ST, LICENSE_EXPIRE,
VEH_YEAR, VEH_MAKE, VEH_MODEL, TS_ID, GVW, OVERLENGTH_PERMIT)
values (i, :P10_VIN, :P10_LICENSE, :P10_STATE, to_date(:P10_LICENSE_EXP, 'MM/DD/YYYY'),
:P10_V_YR, :P10_V_MAKE, :P10_V_MODEL, :P10_TS_V_ID, :P10_GVW, :P10_PERMIT);
--delete the original
delete from wwv_flow_files
where NAME = :P10_NAME;
end;
Mine takes additional fields and adds the data to a corrollary table linked by ID. This allows me to customize the type of extra data I store independent of the image. Also note that the variable names will change according to your application.
Now create another page with a report region. Here's a query to display the report:
select IMAGE_ID from TS_IMAGES
Now edit the field in the REPORT and put the following code in as the HTML Expression
[img src="#OWNER#.ts_image_display?p_id=#IMAGE_ID#" /]
(replace the brackets with the standard lt/gt
Voila! It works!