Re: Saving Rich Text Format (RTF) in Oracle 10g using PL/SQL via VB/ASP.NET
Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2009 07:05:10 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: <e384e0bf-022e-4004-972b-acb7963dfbbf_at_s14g2000vbp.googlegroups.com>
On Jan 21, 7:26 pm, "Terry Dykstra" <tddyks..._at_forestoil.ca> wrote:
> "George Lewycky" <gele..._at_nyct.com> wrote in message
>
> news:46cde340-fce1-451f-ad09-4bf1a2b50922_at_h5g2000yqh.googlegroups.com...
>
>
> > Hi Everyone,
>
> > I am converting from a Filemaker application to VB.NET/Oracle and the
> > question that the user has a TEXT BOX where the user is able to
> > highlight, color, underline, etc. the text.
>
> > What I am seeing is RTF is the best option for VB/ASP.NET but where I
> > am stuck is how to save/retrieve/update the RTF text in Oracle and/or
> > translating it back to VB ?
>
> > If anyone has any experience, ideas for this I'd really appreciate
> > hearing from you
>
> > Sincerely
>
> > George Lewycky
>
> > NY City Transit
>
> rtf is just text, so you can use a varchar2 column, although a clob is
> probably a better choice. Your grid control or whatever you use in your
> application needs to be rtf aware.
>
> --
> Terry Dykstra- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
To add to what Terry said: if the text data is always less the 4000 bytes then you can use a varchar2 variable to hold the data. If on the other hand the length of the text data exceeds 4000 bytes then you want to use a CLOB (or BLOB). Avoid the long datatype as it is maintained only for backward compatiability.
Since I do not know the specifics of how MS does RTF you might need to use a BLOB instead of a CLOB as I am not sure what the character translation rules that a CLOB datatype is subject to are and if any non-printable values presnet in the data could be affected by any such translation. As such I suggest you check the manuals before making a final decision between CLOB or BLOB.
HTH -- Mark D Powell -- Received on Fri Jan 23 2009 - 09:05:10 CST