UTL_FILE - check for file existence?

Is there some way of using the UTL_FILE package to check to see if a non-text file(.jpg) exists?

Currently on out website we have numerous people, that may or may not have a photo associated with them. Right now the files are being stored on the webserver, and the paths to the files are being stored in a column(photo_path). If the column contains a null value, I use a default, "No photo avail" type file instead. To save time and effort of inserting the photo path into each player, we hope to ftp the files to a certain directory on the webserver and name them with a standard convention(using the key from the players table), thus eliminating the need for the photo_path column in the table.

I don't know of a function to check to see if the file exists, but I was thinking that maybe I could try to open the file, and if it returns an exception, then I could use the default file.

Has anyone done this, or can anyone offer any insight as to the feasability of this?

Thanks,

Joseph Ranseth - Webmaster
World Cup Fishing
www.worldcupfishing.com Received on Wed Jan 24 2001 - 15:10:53 CST