You have data and lots of it. Some of this data includes images. You store them in your Oracle tables as Binary Large Objects (BLOBs.) You build reports using Oracle SQL Developer. Now you want to make those images in your tables available to your reports, and more importantly, to the end users reading said reports. You can do it!

Earlier this year we walked through how to work with BLOBs in Oracle SQL Developer. So you already know how to INSERT, UPDATE and view the BLOBs stored in your tables.

But wait – haven’t used SQL Developer’s reports yet?

You know how to work with SQL Developer reports, right? No? OK, let’s do a quick run down memory lane then:

BLOBs in the PDF – Make it so!

Alright, so if you have a GRID report that contains a BLOB column, you have the option of including the BLOB contents when you create a PDF export:

At design time, specify how you want the BLOB content to be treated when you export to PDF

Note that you must specify the treatment of the BLOBs in the report design. You won’t be prompted when you launch the Export wizard dialog.

When you open your PDF, there will be a link to the image. Click it.

Click then confirm.

It will launch the default image viewer on your machine.

I hope your pictures are more exciting than mine!

Author

I'm a Distinguished Product Manager at Oracle. My mission is to help you and your company be more efficient with our database tools.

1 Comment

  1. Thanks Carrie!

    I had been meaning to cover this for months, sorry to keep you waiting! The reporting is about to get some really cool upgrades, so stay tuned.

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