Write to word document from oracle plsql

Question

Hi,
Please provide methods to create and write to a word document from ORACLE PLSQL.We tried using UTL FILE package but it writes as ascii text.

Answer 1

Divs wrote:
The server m/c operating system is unix.so we need to invoke the procedure from Unix Os.In that case - not possible. For Windows COM (Component Object Model) to work, Oracle database need to be able to call and load the COM dynamic link libraries.
Not to say that it is not possible. Have never used DCOM (the Distributed COM interface), and not exactly sure what it requires. Assuming that DCOM is not usable from a Linux perspective, you can still provide a manual interface. You create a NT tcp/ip service that exposes the COM interface calls that you need - in a secure fashion (even better - you can provide a higher level abstraction layer for the COM interface that does the specific job you need to be done).
From Oracle you can then use PL/SQL's UTL_TCP package to open a connection to it and via this service craft a Word document on that Windows server.
Are there web services for MS Office? I know Google is pushing that aspect hard (and embroiled in lawsuits with the US government and Microsoft about tender awards in this aspect). Now if Microsoft has "+office-on-the-web+", then one can create a Word document via a web browser. This means that there is an underlying web service - and that this can be called and used. The Evolution (Open Source Mail Reader) project for example uses the MS Exchange web service interface to provide a seamless interface to Exchange mail accounts (have used this everyday for a number of years now).
The real question I would however ask is why Word specifically? Why not a more common format like PDF? You can even consider generating XML instead. Both Microsoft and Open Office and others are supporting XML formatted word processing documents (as oppose to older proprietary and binary formats).
And why not use a Report Writer? I'm a big fan of doing as much as possible in Oracle (using PL/SQL most of the time). But certain things, like generating Word-style documents would be better done (and more flexible too) using a Report Writer.