Re: HPPT/FTP from server

Michael Will de Laforcade wrote in message <69isa6$pf6$1_at_client3.news.psi.net>...
>Hi,
>
>I noticed there is an http package that comes bundled with Oracle8. Is
 there
>an ftp package available.
>Also is there a way for pl/sql to communicate to another server's port
>directly, so that I can write my own FTP package??

Not directly as PL/SQL does not support operating system calls - it needs to be portable. Even the implementation of the Berkely socket api used for networking programming differs from operating system to operating system. Building support for specific operating systems into PL/SQL won't work as PL/SQL procedures and packages will not be portable to another Oracle db on a different operating system.

Writing a FTP program from scratch is also not that easy if you never have done networking programming before. If you want to see how the FTP protocol works, go to Yahoo and search for the FTP RFC (Request For Comments).

The HTTP package from Oracle also does not include any networking software. The package is just for the formatting of output data, and reading certain input parameters.

Question - why write a FTP client or server package? It's much easier to use the existing TCP services of the operating system. And you can integrate these services with Oracle by using the DBMS pipes feunctionality, or using simple SQL*Plus scripts that run via cron checking for work to do.

regards,
Billy Received on Thu Jan 15 1998 - 00:00:00 CST