Sending Unicode HTML email from Oracle

Question

Dear All,
How we can send the HTML email from Oracle in Unicode format (I am using Arabic Language, to be specific). So far I have tried the following solutions (using utl_smpt) without any success (either i see junk characters in the email or see question marks). Would you please help me in solving this?
Options Tried*
Option 1
SQL> ed
Wrote file afiedt.buf
  1  CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE p_send_mail_test (
  2  sender IN VARCHAR2,
  3  recipient IN VARCHAR2,
  4  subj IN VARCHAR2,
  5  message IN VARCHAR2)
  6  IS
  7  mailhost VARCHAR2(30) := '<smtp Server>';
  8  c utl_smtp.connection;
  9  PROCEDURE send_header( name IN VARCHAR2, header IN VARCHAR2) AS
10  BEGIN
11  utl_smtp.write_data(c, name || ': ' || header || utl_tcp.CRLF);
12  END;
13  BEGIN
14  c := utl_smtp.open_connection(mailhost,25);
15  utl_smtp.helo(c, mailhost);
16  utl_smtp.mail(c, sender);
17  utl_smtp.rcpt(c, recipient);
18  utl_smtp.open_data(c);
19  send_header('From', sender);
20  send_header('To', recipient);
21  -- If you need to send mail to more than one receipient, uncomment the
22  -- following line(s) as appropriate. Please don't forget the ","
23  -- in the "To" line before the next receipient's email id. You can't
24  -- use a comma separated list in the receipient parameter.
25  -- For variable number of "To"'s and "Cc"'s have multiple calls to
26  -- "send_header" function inside a cursor for loop.
27  -- Similar comments apply for "Cc" too.
28  -- send_header('To', ',<email@domain>');
29   send_header('Cc', ',<email@domain>');
30  send_header('Subject', subj);
31  utl_smtp.write_data(c, utl_tcp.CRLF || message);
32  utl_smtp.close_data(c);
33  utl_smtp.quit(c);
34  EXCEPTION
35  WHEN utl_smtp.transient_error OR utl_smtp.permanent_error THEN
36  utl_smtp.quit(c);
37  raise_application_error(-20000,
38  'Failed to send mail due to the following error: ' || sqlerrm);
39* END;
SQL>
SQL> /
Procedure created.
SQL> ed
Wrote file afiedt.buf
  1  declare
  2   email_text varchar2(2000);
  3   contract_end_date_v date := sysdate;
  4   name_v varchar2(200) := 'Riaz';
  5   begin
  6    email_text :='<br/><div align="right"><font size="4"><b>السيد '||name_v||'  المحترم</b><br/><br/> يرجى التكرم بالعلم أن العقد الخاص بكم سينتهي بتاريخ ' || to_char(contract_end_date_v,'dd-mm-yyyy')||'<br/>. وعليه يرجـى التكـرم بإفادة إدارة الموارد البشرية في حال عدم رغبتكم بتجديد العقد خلال مدة أقصها أسبوعين من اليوم وذلك للأهمية القصوى  <br/>.ولكم جزيل الشكر والتقدير  </font></div>';
  7    p_send_mail_test('<email@domain>','<email@domain>','Hello',email_text);
  8*  end;
SQL> /
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
Result_
<div align="right"><font size="4"><b>????? Riaz ???????</b>
???? ?????? ?????? ?? ????? ????? ??? ?????? ?????? 12-07-2011
.???? ???? ????? ???????? </font></div>
[Question marks along with all tags; this OTN page is converting that to HTML output]
Option2
SQL> ed
Wrote file afiedt.buf
  1  create or replace procedure html_email(
  2      p_to            in varchar2,
  3      p_from          in varchar2,
  4      p_subject       in varchar2,
  5      p_text          in varchar2 default null,
  6      p_html          in varchar2 default null
  7  )
  8  is
  9      l_boundary      varchar2(255) default 'a1b2c3d4e3f2g1';
10      l_connection    utl_smtp.connection;
11      l_body_html     clob := empty_clob;  --This LOB will be the email message
12      l_offset        number;
13      l_ammount       number;
14      l_temp          varchar2(32767) default null;
15      l_smtp_hostname varchar2(50) := '<smtp Server>';
16  begin
17      l_connection := utl_smtp.open_connection( l_smtp_hostname, 25);
18      utl_smtp.helo( l_connection, l_smtp_hostname );
19      utl_smtp.mail( l_connection, p_from );
20      utl_smtp.rcpt( l_connection, p_to );
21      l_temp := l_temp || 'MIME-Version: 1.0' ||  chr(13) || chr(10);
22      l_temp := l_temp || 'To: ' || p_to || chr(13) || chr(10);
23      l_temp := l_temp || 'From: ' || p_from || chr(13) || chr(10);
24      l_temp := l_temp || 'Subject: ' || p_subject || chr(13) || chr(10);
25      l_temp := l_temp || 'Reply-To: ' || p_from ||  chr(13) || chr(10);
26      l_temp := l_temp || 'Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=' ||
27                           chr(34) || l_boundary ||  chr(34) || chr(13) ||
28                           chr(10);
29      ----------------------------------------------------
30      -- Write the headers
31      dbms_lob.createtemporary( l_body_html, false, 10 );
32      dbms_lob.write(l_body_html,length(l_temp),1,l_temp);
33      ----------------------------------------------------
34      -- Write the text boundary
35      l_offset := dbms_lob.getlength(l_body_html) + 1;
36      l_temp   := '--' || l_boundary || chr(13)||chr(10);
37      l_temp   := l_temp || 'content-type: text/plain;charset=utf-8' ||
38                    chr(13) || chr(10) || chr(13) || chr(10);
39      dbms_lob.write(l_body_html,length(l_temp),l_offset,l_temp);
40      ----------------------------------------------------
41      -- Write the plain text portion of the email
42      l_offset := dbms_lob.getlength(l_body_html) + 1;
43      dbms_lob.write(l_body_html,length(p_text),l_offset,p_text);
44      ----------------------------------------------------
45      -- Write the HTML boundary
46      l_temp   := chr(13)||chr(10)||chr(13)||chr(10)||'--' || l_boundary ||
47                      chr(13) || chr(10);
48      l_temp   := l_temp || 'content-type: text/html;charset=utf-8' ||
49                     chr(13) || chr(10) || chr(13) || chr(10);
50      l_offset := dbms_lob.getlength(l_body_html) + 1;
51      dbms_lob.write(l_body_html,length(l_temp),l_offset,l_temp);
52      ----------------------------------------------------
53      -- Write the HTML portion of the message
54      l_offset := dbms_lob.getlength(l_body_html) + 1;
55      dbms_lob.write(l_body_html,length(p_html),l_offset,p_html);
56      ----------------------------------------------------
57      -- Write the final html boundary
58      l_temp   := chr(13) || chr(10) || '--' ||  l_boundary || '--' || chr(13);
59      l_offset := dbms_lob.getlength(l_body_html) + 1;
60      dbms_lob.write(l_body_html,length(l_temp),l_offset,l_temp);
61      ----------------------------------------------------
62      -- Send the email in 1900 byte chunks to UTL_SMTP
63      l_offset  := 1;
64      l_ammount := 1900;
65      utl_smtp.open_data(l_connection);
66      while l_offset < dbms_lob.getlength(l_body_html) loop
67          utl_smtp.write_data(l_connection,
68                              dbms_lob.substr(l_body_html,l_ammount,l_offset));
69          l_offset  := l_offset + l_ammount ;
70          l_ammount := least(1900,dbms_lob.getlength(l_body_html) - l_ammount);
71      end loop;
72      utl_smtp.close_data(l_connection);
73      utl_smtp.quit( l_connection );
74      dbms_lob.freetemporary(l_body_html);
75* end;
SQL> /
Procedure created.
SQL> ed
Wrote file afiedt.buf
  1  declare
  2   email_text varchar2(2000);
  3   contract_end_date_v date := sysdate;
  4   name_v varchar2(200) := 'Riaz';
  5   begin
  6    email_text :='<br/><div align="right"><font size="4"><b>السيد '||name_v||'  المحترم</b><br/><br/> يرجى التكرم بالعلم أن العقد الخاص بكم سينتهي بتاريخ ' || to_char(contract_end_date_v,'dd-mm-yyyy')||'<br/>. وعليه يرجـى التكـرم بإفادة إدارة الموارد البشرية في حال عدم رغبتكم بتجديد العقد خلال مدة أقصها أسبوعين من اليوم وذلك للأهمية القصوى  <br/>.ولكم جزيل الشكر والتقدير  </font></div>';
  7    html_email(p_to=>'<email@domain>',p_from=>'<email@domain>',p_subject=>'Hello',p_text=>'Hi', p_html=>email_text);
  8*  end;
SQL> /
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
Result*
????? Riaz ???????
???? ?????? ?????? ?? ????? ????? ??? ?????? ?????? 12-07-2011
Option3
SQL> ed
Wrote file afiedt.buf
  1  create or replace procedure p_html_email_riaz(
  2      p_to            in varchar2,
  3      p_from          in varchar2,
  4      p_subject       in varchar2,
  5      p_text          in varchar2 default null,
  6      p_html          in varchar2 default null
  7  )
  8  is
  9      l_boundary      varchar2(255) default 'a1b2c3d4e3f2g1';
10      l_connection    utl_smtp.connection;
11      l_body_html     clob := empty_clob;  --This LOB will be the email message
12      l_offset        number;
13      l_ammount       number;
14      l_temp          varchar2(32767) default null;
15      l_smtp_hostname varchar2(50) := '<smtp Server>';
16  begin
17      l_connection := utl_smtp.open_connection( l_smtp_hostname, 25);
18      utl_smtp.helo( l_connection, l_smtp_hostname );
19      utl_smtp.mail( l_connection, p_from );
20      utl_smtp.rcpt( l_connection, p_to );
21      l_temp := l_temp || 'MIME-Version: 1.0' ||  chr(13) || chr(10);
22      l_temp := l_temp || 'To: ' || p_to || chr(13) || chr(10);
23      l_temp := l_temp || 'From: ' || p_from || chr(13) || chr(10);
24      l_temp := l_temp || 'Subject: ' || p_subject || chr(13) || chr(10);
25      l_temp := l_temp || 'Reply-To: ' || p_from ||  chr(13) || chr(10);
26      l_temp := l_temp || 'Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=' ||
27                           chr(34) || l_boundary ||  chr(34) || chr(13) ||
28                           chr(10);
29      ----------------------------------------------------
30      -- Write the headers
31      dbms_lob.createtemporary( l_body_html, false, 10 );
32      dbms_lob.write(l_body_html,length(l_temp),1,l_temp);
33      ----------------------------------------------------
34      -- Write the text boundary
35      l_offset := dbms_lob.getlength(l_body_html) + 1;
36      l_temp   := '--' || l_boundary || chr(13)||chr(10);
37      l_temp   := l_temp || 'content-type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8' ||
38                    chr(13) || chr(10) || chr(13) || chr(10);
39      dbms_lob.write(l_body_html,length(l_temp),l_offset,l_temp);
40      ----------------------------------------------------
41      -- Write the plain text portion of the email
42  /**
43      l_offset := dbms_lob.getlength(l_body_html) + 1;
44      dbms_lob.write(l_body_html,length(p_text),l_offset,p_text);
45  **/
46      ----------------------------------------------------
47      -- Write the HTML boundary
48      l_temp   := chr(13)||chr(10)||chr(13)||chr(10)||'--' || l_boundary ||
49                      chr(13) || chr(10);
50      l_temp   := l_temp || 'content-type: text/html;' ||
51                     chr(13) || chr(10) || chr(13) || chr(10);
52      l_offset := dbms_lob.getlength(l_body_html) + 1;
53      dbms_lob.write(l_body_html,length(l_temp),l_offset,l_temp);
54      ----------------------------------------------------
55      -- Write the HTML portion of the message
56      l_offset := dbms_lob.getlength(l_body_html) + 1;
57      dbms_lob.write(l_body_html,length(p_html),l_offset,p_html);
58      ----------------------------------------------------
59      -- Write the final html boundary
60      l_temp   := chr(13) || chr(10) || '--' ||  l_boundary || '--' || chr(13);
61      l_offset := dbms_lob.getlength(l_body_html) + 1;
62      dbms_lob.write(l_body_html,length(l_temp),l_offset,l_temp);
63      ----------------------------------------------------
64      -- Send the email in 1900 byte chunks to UTL_SMTP
65      l_offset  := 1;
66      l_ammount := 1900;
67      utl_smtp.open_data(l_connection);
68      while l_offset < dbms_lob.getlength(l_body_html) loop
69          utl_smtp.write_raw_data(l_connection,
70              utl_raw.cast_to_raw(
71                  dbms_lob.substr(l_body_html,l_ammount,l_offset ) ) );
72          l_offset  := l_offset + l_ammount ;
73          l_ammount := least(1900,dbms_lob.getlength(l_body_html) - l_ammount);
74      end loop;
75      utl_smtp.close_data(l_connection);
76      utl_smtp.quit( l_connection );
77      dbms_lob.freetemporary(l_body_html);
78* end;
SQL>
SQL> /
Procedure created.
SQL> ed
Wrote file afiedt.buf
  1  declare
  2   email_text varchar2(2000);
  3   contract_end_date_v date := sysdate;
  4   name_v varchar2(200) := 'Riaz';
  5   begin
  6    email_text :='<br/><div align="right"><font size="4"><b>السيد '||name_v||'  المحترم</b><br/><br/> يرجى التكرم بالعلم أن العقد الخاص بكم سينتهي بتاريخ ' || to_char(contract_end_date_v,'dd-mm-yyyy')||'<br/>. وعليه يرجـى التكـرم بإفادة إدارة الموارد البشرية في حال عدم رغبتكم بتجديد العقد خلال مدة أقصها أسبوعين من اليوم وذلك للأهمية القصوى  <br/>.ولكم جزيل الشكر والتقدير  </font></div>';
  7    p_html_email_riaz(p_to=>'<email@domain>',p_from=>'<email@domain>',p_subject=>'Hello',p_text=>'Hi', p_html=>email_text);
  8*  end;
SQL> /
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
Result*
GaSmO Riaz GacMJQc
mQLl GaJ_Qc HGaZac Cd GaZ^O GaNGU H_c SmdJem HJGQmN 12-07-2011
. fZame mQL\l GaJ_\Qc HE]GOI EOGQI GacfGQO GaHTQmI ]m MGa ZOc Q[HJ_c HJLOmO GaZ^O NaGa cOI C^UeG CSHfZmd cd Gamfc fPa_ aaCecmI Ga^Ufl
.fa_c LRma GaT_Q fGaJ^OmQ
*Option4*
[code]
SQL> ed
Wrote file afiedt.buf
1 CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE send_email_html_test(
2 pi_from IN Varchar,
3 pi_to IN VARCHAR,
4 pi_cc IN Varchar,
5 pi_subj IN VARCHAR,
6 pi_msg CLOB
7 )
8 IS
9 conn utl_smtp.connection;
10 lv_mailhost varchar2(1000);
11 lv_port number;
12 BEGIN
13 lv_mailhost := '<smtp Server>';
14 lv_port := 25;
15 conn := utl_smtp.open_connection(lv_mailhost, lv_port);
16 utl_smtp.helo(conn, lv_mailhost);
17 utl_smtp.mail(conn, pi_from);
18 utl_smtp.rcpt(conn, pi_to);
19 IF pi_cc is not null THEN
20 utl_smtp.rcpt(conn, pi_cc);
21 END IF;
22 utl_smtp.open_data(conn);
23 utl_smtp.write_data(conn, 'MIME-version: 1.0' || utl_tcp.CRLF);
24 utl_smtp.write_data(conn, 'Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-6' ||
25 utl_tcp.CRLF);
26 utl_smtp.write_data(conn, 'Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit' ||
27 utl_tcp.CRLF);
28 utl_smtp.write_data(conn, 'From:' ||pi_from || utl_tcp.CRLF);
29 utl_smtp.write_data(conn, 'To:' ||pi_to || utl_tcp.CRLF);
30 utl_smtp.write_data(conn, 'Cc:' ||pi_cc || utl_tcp.CRLF);
31 utl_smtp.write_data(conn, 'Reply-To:' ||pi_from || utl_tcp.CRLF);
32 utl_smtp.write_data(conn, 'Subject:' ||pi_subj|| utl_tcp.CRLF);
33 utl_smtp.write_data(conn, utl_tcp.crlf);
34 utl_smtp.write_raw_data(conn, utl_raw.cast_to_raw(pi_msg));
35 utl_smtp.close_data(conn);
36 utl_smtp.quit(conn);
37 EXCEPTION WHEN others THEN
38 dbms_output.put_line(sqlerrm);
39* END;
40 /
Procedure created.
SQL> ed
Wrote file afiedt.buf
1 declare
2 email_text varchar2(2000);
3 contract_end_date_v date := sysdate;
4 name_v varchar2(200) := 'Riaz';
5 begin
6 email_text :='
<div align="right"><font size="4"><b>السيد '||name_v||' المحترم</b>
يرجى التكرم بالعلم أن العقد الخاص بكم سينتهي بتاريخ ' || to_char(contract_end_date_v,'dd-mm-yyyy')||'
. وعليه يرجـى التكـرم بإفادة إدارة الموارد البشرية في حال عدم رغبتكم بتجديد العقد خلال مدة أقصها أسبوعين من اليوم وذلك للأهمية القصوى
.ولكم جزيل الشكر والتقدير </font></div>';
7 send_email_html_test('<email@domain>',
8           '<email@domain>',
9 '<email@domain>',
10 'Hello',email_text);
11* end;
SQL> /
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
Result*
Riaz افكحترك
ٍرجٌ افترك بافغفك أل افغد افخاص بك سٍلتمٍ بتارٍخ 12-07-2011
. نغفٍم ٍرجٌ افترك بإادة إدارة افكنارد افبشرٍة ٍ حاف غدك ربتك بتجدٍد افغد خفاف كدة أصما أسبنغٍل كل افٍنك نذف ففأمكٍة افصنٌ
.نفك جزٍف افشر نافتدٍر
Option5
SQL> ed
Wrote file afiedt.buf
  1  CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE send_mail_test1 (p_to        IN VARCHAR2,
  2                                         p_from      IN VARCHAR2,
  3                                         p_subject   IN VARCHAR2,
  4                                         p_text_msg  IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL,
  5                                         p_html_msg  IN VARCHAR2 DEFAULT NULL,
  6                                         p_smtp_host IN VARCHAR2,
  7                                         p_smtp_port IN NUMBER DEFAULT 25)
  8  AS
  9    l_mail_conn   UTL_SMTP.connection;
10    l_boundary    VARCHAR2(50) := '----=*#abc1234321cba#*=';
11  BEGIN
12    l_mail_conn := UTL_SMTP.open_connection(p_smtp_host, p_smtp_port);
13    UTL_SMTP.helo(l_mail_conn, p_smtp_host);
14    UTL_SMTP.mail(l_mail_conn, p_from);
15    UTL_SMTP.rcpt(l_mail_conn, p_to);
16    UTL_SMTP.open_data(l_mail_conn);
17    UTL_SMTP.write_data(l_mail_conn, 'Date: ' || TO_CHAR(SYSDATE, 'DD-MON-YYYY HH24:MI:SS') || UTL_TCP.crlf);
18    UTL_SMTP.write_data(l_mail_conn, 'To: ' || p_to || UTL_TCP.crlf);
19    UTL_SMTP.write_data(l_mail_conn, 'From: ' || p_from || UTL_TCP.crlf);
20    UTL_SMTP.write_data(l_mail_conn, 'Subject: ' || p_subject || UTL_TCP.crlf);
21    UTL_SMTP.write_data(l_mail_conn, 'Reply-To: ' || p_from || UTL_TCP.crlf);
22    UTL_SMTP.write_data(l_mail_conn, 'MIME-Version: 1.0' || UTL_TCP.crlf);
23    UTL_SMTP.write_data(l_mail_conn, 'Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="' || l_boundary || '"' || UTL_TCP.crlf || UTL_TCP.crlf);
24    IF p_text_msg IS NOT NULL THEN
25      UTL_SMTP.write_data(l_mail_conn, '--' || l_boundary || UTL_TCP.crlf);
26      UTL_SMTP.write_data(l_mail_conn, 'Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"' || UTL_TCP.crlf || UTL_TCP.crlf);
27      UTL_SMTP.write_data(l_mail_conn, p_text_msg);
28      UTL_SMTP.write_data(l_mail_conn, UTL_TCP.crlf || UTL_TCP.crlf);
29    END IF;
30    IF p_html_msg IS NOT NULL THEN
31      UTL_SMTP.write_data(l_mail_conn, '--' || l_boundary || UTL_TCP.crlf);
32      UTL_SMTP.write_data(l_mail_conn, 'Content-Type: text/html; charset="utf-8"' || UTL_TCP.crlf || UTL_TCP.crlf);
33      UTL_SMTP.write_data(l_mail_conn, p_html_msg);
34      UTL_SMTP.write_data(l_mail_conn, UTL_TCP.crlf || UTL_TCP.crlf);
35    END IF;
36    UTL_SMTP.write_data(l_mail_conn, '--' || l_boundary || '--' || UTL_TCP.crlf);
37    UTL_SMTP.close_data(l_mail_conn);
38    UTL_SMTP.quit(l_mail_conn);
39* END;
SQL> /
Procedure created.
SQL> ed
Wrote file afiedt.buf
  1  declare
  2   email_text varchar2(2000);
  3   contract_end_date_v date := sysdate;
  4   name_v varchar2(200) := 'Riaz';
  5   begin
  6    email_text :='<br/><div align="right"><font size="4"><b>السيد '||name_v||'  المحترم</b><br/><br/> يرجى التكرم بالعلم أن العقد الخاص بكم سينتهي بتاريخ ' || to_char(contract_end_date_v,'dd-mm-yyyy')||'<br/>. وعليه يرجـى التكـرم بإفادة إدارة الموارد البشرية في حال عدم رغبتكم بتجديد العقد خلال مدة أقصها أسبوعين من اليوم وذلك للأهمية القصوى  <br/>.ولكم جزيل الشكر والتقدير  </font></div>';
  7    send_mail_test1('<email@domain>',
  8                   '<email@domain>',
  9                         'Hello',
10                 'msg',
11                 email_text,
12                 '<smtp Server>',
13                 25);
14*  end;
SQL> /
PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.
Result*
????? Riaz ???????
???? ?????? ?????? ?? ????? ????? ??? ?????? ?????? 12-07-2011
.???? ???? ????? ????????

Answer 1

I worked with Oracle support and was able to find solution. The helping document ids were: 752309.1 & 404389.1