Setting up directory object for emailing attachments

Question

Hi,
I am having trouble trying to send emails with attachments. I have downloaded and created the the demo_mail package and the pdf_mail procedure. I also have the send_email_attach procedure using utl_mail.
I am not sure, or familiar on setting up the directory object. I don't have privileges to do this so I need to understand exactly what needs to be done so I could relay it to my dba.
In the Send_email_attach procedure there is this code
"fHandle := UTL_FILE.FOPEN('/Source/Apps/prod/reports', 'mypdf.pdf', 'r');" I put the directory path the file is in as the first argument and the name of my pdf in the second one. When I run it, it gives me an error:
ORA-20001: The following error has occured : ORA-29280: invalid directory path
I'm thinking I need the directory object in the first argument? Is this correct. And then do I put the file in the directory path that the directory object points to? and keep as the second argument?
using the pdf_mail procedure it sends the email but the attachment in the email is bad. Acrobat just says: Acrobat reader could not open '~6034454.pdf' because it is either not a supported file type or because the file has been damaged (for example, it was sent as an email attachment and wasn't correctly formated).
This is the code I use to call it:
pdf_mail('myemail',
'another email',
'This is a test',
'Hope it works',
'/Data/oracle/product/10g__BI/tools/web/icons/myicons/mypdf.pdf',
EMPTY_BLOB());
I am not sure what to put in the last two arguments. In the next to last argument I put the path where the file is and in the last argument I put EMPTY_BLOB() call. If I put the name of the pdf in quotes it gives me an error ORA-06550: wrong number or types of arguments in call to pdf_mail.
I'm not sure how to reference the files or the directory.
any help would be greatly appreciated.
thanks

Answer 1

You need to use a directory object to do this properly. If you don't have privileges then get them...
The UTL_FILE_DIR parameter has been deprecated by oracle in favour of direcory objects because of it's security problems.
The correct thing to do is to create a directory object e.g.:
CREATE OR REPLACE DIRECTORY mydir AS 'c:\myfiles';Note: This does not create the directory on the file system. You have to do that yourself and ensure that oracle has permission to read/write to that file system directory.
Then, grant permission to the users who require access e.g....
GRANT READ,WRITE ON DIRECTORY mydir TO myuser;Then use that directory object inside your FOPEN statement e.g.
fh := UTL_FILE.FOPEN('MYDIR', 'myfile.txt', 'r');Note: You MUST specify the directory object name in quotes and in UPPER case for this to work as it is a string that is referring to a database object name which will have been stored in uppercase by default.