Sending binary attachement using UTL_SMTP

Question

I am attempting to send a .PDF or Word .DOC as an attachment to an email through PL/Sql procedure. Using UTL_FILE to open the file and looping through the file using UTL_FILE.GET_RAW to extract a line then using UTL_SMTP.WRITE_RAW_DATA(conn,UTL_ENCODE.BASE64_ENCODE(<raw data>)) to write the file. I did get an email with the attachment, but when attempting to open the attachment, it cannot because it is corrupt in some way!??!
The snippet of code is:
l_file_handle := utl_file.fopen(l_directory_name,l_file_name,'r',32767);
-- generate the MIME boundary line & header ...
l_mesg := lcrlf || '--' || l_boundary_text || lcrlf ||
'Content-Type: '|| p_mime_type|| ';' || lcrlf ||
'Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="' ||
l_file_name || '"' || lcrlf ||
'Content-Transfer-Encoding: ' || p_mime_trnsf_enc || lcrlf || lcrlf;
utl_smtp.write_data(lconn, l_mesg);
-- and append the file contents to the end of the message ...
BEGIN
LOOP
IF p_mime_trnsf_enc = '7bit' THEN
utl_file.get_line(l_file_handle, l_line);
l_mesg := l_line || lcrlf;
utl_smtp.write_data(lconn, l_mesg);
ELSE -- Base-64 encode type
utl_file.get_raw(l_file_handle, l_line_raw, 100);
utl_smtp.write_raw_data(lconn, utl_encode.base64_encode(l_line_raw));
utl_smtp.write_data(lconn,lcrlf);
END IF;
END LOOP;
... followed by the UTL_FILE exceptions ...
l_mesg := lcrlf;
utl_smtp.write_data(lconn,l_mesg);
utl_file.fclose(l_file_handle);
Any suggestions???

Answer 1

The documentation explicitly states:
"With the UTL_FILE package, your PL/SQL programs can read and write operating system text files"
See: http://download-east.oracle.com/docs/cd/B10501_01/appdev.920/a96612/u_file.htm#1002119
Also:
"UTL_FILE.GET_RAW - This function reads a RAW string value from a file"
See: http://download-east.oracle.com/docs/cd/B10501_01/appdev.920/a96612/u_file2.htm#1003233
I agree that this is misleading.
You can use DBMS_LOB.LOADFROMFILE to read a file into a BLOB. You can then use DBMS_LOB.READ to read from the BLOB to a RAW.
You can then use the RAW data to build the attachment portion of the email.