I thought of using iFS but as you know it only provides interface through JAVA API. Our application is
COM based. I am thinking to use BLOB to stored images within the table. I guess iFS also uses BLOb internally to store documents. So is there any performance benefit to use iFS rather than storing documents in blob. I know iFS provided cool feature like serching, version contrl check in/check ou etc. I am not looking for those features now. What's your recommendation in terms of performance to store the blob as I am thinking the table may grow upto 3TB ?

Tom -

Can you confirm my simplified understanding of the architecture? Is it...

Client (e.g., Windows explorer) <--> 9iAS <--> 9i database

I'd like to avoid 9iAS for now if possible, but I am guessing iFS isn't out-of-box functionality with the database alone, true?

Thanks,
Dave

We are providing an architecture for 9i Application server based applications to one of our clients. Our client is already licensed with the Oracle 9i AS on IBM AIX based systems. As our future plan grows we might implement applications with Oracle Collaboration Suite and Oracle Developer suite. Now I have some basic doubts here:-

1.Suppose we are installing the 9iAS on IBM AIX based system and can we have our 9i database on Solaris SPARC system ?

2. Can't I use Oracle 9.0.3 collaboration suite with this setup.

3. Now I understand the fact that Oracle developer suite is not supoorted for IBM AIX based systems. In this case can I intall the Developer suite on one of the NT or Solaris system and then talk with the 9iAS on IBM AIX system and database on the solaris server.

Please help me with the above issues so that I can start with my arcitectural suggestions.

You said with 10gAS you can use an infrastructure database based on an already existing database instance. We are currently using 9iAS with both a middle teir and infrastructure but looking at moving to a 10gAS J2ee and WebCache install but also want to add the Oracle Identity Management component (OID, SSO, etc...). I don't like the prospect of dedicating a server solely to house the infrastucture required by the Identity Management components.
1) Could I install this infrastructure into an existing database?
2)If so, can I manage the infrastructure from the Oracle Enerprise Manager installed on my middle tier or would I also have to install the OEM on the infrastructure?
3)What if any are the implications of this configuration?

Any info you can provide would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

This is exactly what I was looking for.
Thanks.

We are able to create a text file using java and webdav protocol on database under public folder of </code> http://machine_name/8080 <code>We would like to know how this gets stored inside the database(like in which tablespace,table etc.).we would also like to know whether it's follows all webdav standard,also how to set the properties for those files using java.Along with your explanation any good documents which has got examples will be helpful.

No answer ?? At least some link for how to set properties and how to see that in database.Found No documents for webdav in oracle documention accept for "it is protocol and oracle supports this".Need to know how to use this to store,retrive ,set properties and view etc.

Your help is appreciated.

Please remember this is AskTom - not AskAWholeBunchOfPeopleThatWorkForOracle. Sometimes Tom must get others involved in order to properly answer a question. Sometimes it may take a day or so to get an answer. My mom always said, "You can't rush a good thing". ;)

Couldn't find anything for setting properties and reteriving in that package.Did I miss anything ??
Any example will be highly appreciated.

I would also be interested in some plsql API for webDAV, if you are looking for a thirdpary java webDAV api maybe you could take a look at the apache jakarta slide project which includes a client webdav api ...
</code> http://jakarta.apache.org/slide/ <code>

Hoes does the feature set in the forthcoming WinFS (part of Windows' long-awaited Longhorn release) compare to Oracle IFS? WinFS has started its lofty marketing campaigns about seamless integration between the filesystem and database content, seamless searching, indexing, etc. All of which have always been doable since Oracle 8i/IFS?

Comments? Thanks

to something that has existed for a couple of years.


But in any case, I would more likely compare "winfs" and many portions of the Longhorn OS to capabilities in Collaboration Suite. I've been searching over files, email, document archives, voicemail, web conferences for a while now.

There are some documents which the users want to upload in database
i have controled it through the file system and i have a table.

create table dept_page_attachments
(file_id NUMBER(10),
server VARCHAR2(256),
path VARCHAR2(150),
filename VARCHAR2(256));

when the user PRESSES the BUTTON then file copied to \\SERVER\PATH\FILENAME
(if the user has the access to write a file in the folder).

here we are using ASP pages for the viewing of documents from \\SERVER\PATH\FILENAME.
and for the input of data and uploading of files we are using oracle forms 6i.

if the user has just the rights to Read the file
then the user can only read the file but can't upload the file.
and if the user has the rights to write the file in the folder
then he has also get the rights to delete the file to manualy delete from the specified location,
which we don't want.

how can i manage these things from oracle forms or from another way that
he get rights for the time of copying and after the file copying, procedure revokes the rights.

or from any other way hich you suggest.

Please Help...
Thans in Advance.

In Oracle Database ...
1) How can I Insert a PDF/Word Document and how can I View it from Oracle forms or from ASP Pages?
2) If JAVA Stored Procedures are switable then please Give me an example.
3) Which Data Type is Switable for these Documents ?

Please Help...
thanks in advance.

Hi Tom !
Can we use PL/SQL to manipulate iFS? Can I use PL/SQL to retrieve, check in, check out versioning...iFS documents? I want to use iFS for my project but I cann't use Java because my project use ASP.net. Is there any way to program ASP.net with iFS?

Tom,

I'm hoping you can clarify something. With the frequent renaming and moving of functionality into the app server, it's tricky to keep up with database file store technologies.

If you just want to use webdav to access database documents do you need to use Oracle9iAS or can we use built in database functionality? I think I saw that XMLDB can do this but I am not sure.

Oh. The database version is 9i or 10g Standard Edition.

Thanks

Tom,

We're integrating iFS with an Oracle DB based application but we're hitting big problems with transaction management.

We want to do things like automatically create a new folder every time a user creates a new order. This has to be transactional - no new folder if the TX rolls back.

But there doesn't seem to be any support for creating the new folder in the same transaction context.

Any advice?

Tom,

My question is related to the original question. I have an application which stores several free format text data on several tables. I want to build some kind of content management system to manage the documents created from the database. There are almost 800 different kind of word documents ( kind of templates ) and each template differ from other in the content, in some template I need to calculate some dollor amounts along with some text and in some template I need to display just text, there may be heading, sub heading and diferent fonts and style . We would like to create PDF/WORD files and store the file into a blob/XMLTYPE column so that it can be reprinted for later use.

What would be best approach to design this kind of application. We have 10G database and I am thinking to use XMLDB features. We donot have ifS , we do have 10GAS.

Thank you.

Tom,

How can I store documents of whatever encoding (pdf, doc, tiff, jpg, etc.) in the database and allow access to the same BLOBs using either WebDAV or plain old http? I have set up mod_plsql and can use it pretty well, but the WebDAV stuff I can find is either very dark and mysterious (turn on XDB and it goes *somewhere* in that schema) or obsolete (interMedia Clipboard circa 8.1.7). Being a paranoid DBA (that's redundant isn't it?) I just don't like or trust "automagic". OCS and portal aren't the answer because we aren't going to spend $60/user, politically I can't force a change in web/app server, and I can't seem to download the SDK to play with.

So you have a better understanding of my situation and motivation: I am the DBA for a small ISV that has an internet-based subscription content management product. We have a low transaction volume (maybe 1000/day), but fairly high data volume (50M documents/10TB). Although I am an Oracle guy myself, we are historically a Microsoft shop because their products are quick, easy, and cheap. I have an opportunity to show how we could improve our product using Oracle as the back end, but there is no way we are going to scrap all our MS stuff and build a Linux, Oracle DBMS, Oracle iAS, Java app.

Tom,

I have absolutely considered htmldb and am impressed with what I have seen. I can provide marginal improvements if I limit myself to http and a browser. However, if you do the math on my previous post, you'll notice that it'd take 137 years to load 50M docs at 1000/dy. We haven't been in business for 137 years. ;) Most of our documents are scanned images and are bulk-loaded for purely archival purposes. I know SQL Loader can perform the bulk loading just fine, or operators can do file upload one at a time; but the killer feature I was hoping to demonstrate was to map a drive and just scan directly into Oracle and have the docs show up on the web site. I don't want to shred XML or define a XML Schema, set up ACLs or foldering. I just want to be able to click file->save inside an app.

We have an existing document management system [in-house] using mod_plsql and would like to add web-dav access to it. The system is designed using standard relational tables to store id,name,creator,created date etc as well as a separate table for versions.

I'd like to use xmldb to provide web_dav upload into these tables, but as far as I can tell, unstructured data [i.e. binary files] always end up in the xdb schema with the meta data stored somewhere else. Can you think of any way to keep the existing table structures and still get the advantage of xmldb's webdav/ftp upload?

Hi Tom

There is a new Oracle Content DB (new Oracle Files??).

But there is no information on the site, documentation? download? neither is it written when will it be available.

We already have a 10GR2, how will this new Content DB be installed??
Thanks

Tom,

We would like to use MOD_ORADAV to implement WebDAV on an Oracle DB.

Oracle XDB is not an acceptable solution because we need to manage our own authentication - we are not willing to give our users DB passwords.

The Intermedia WebDAV functionality also seems to require us to use Oracle DB passwords... not what we need.

Can you give an example or a pointer to information on how to use MOD_ORADAV to implement WebDAV folders?

hi Tom, wishing you are fine.
we have an application deals with documents, storing deleting and updating. we need to install oracle content database to be the repository for all files. at the same time we need to continue using our application (developed using oracle forms, 10database) which deals with doc. the qustion is it possible load, update, delete files from our application(forms or database) to conetent db?
thanks.