Getting to the host OS from Oracle REPORTS

[Quoted] I have a question about printing attached files from within ORACLE REPORTS. I have a table with blobs that point to external document files (.doc, .pdf or .txt). As part of the report I create I would like a button to appear in the preview screen that when pressed can launch the correct OS program and bring the document up for display.

I can do this in FORMS because Oracle has included a built-in HOST function where you can pass a string to be execute and it will hand it off to the OS to execute.

No such function is available in REPORTS. I would like to write a Java procedure that I can have in the database then call from REPORTS which would do the exact thing. (hand a command over to the OS to execute)

Has anyone done anything like this? Or can you point in the direction of good ORACLE/Java book. I know C but I have never used Java.

Thanks Received on Thu Oct 17 2002 - 20:35:52 CEST