Skip Headers

Oracle Workflow Developer's Guide
Release 2.6.3.5

Part Number B12161-02
Previous Next       Contents Index Glossary
         Previous  Next          Contents  Index  Glossary

Standard APIs for "PL/SQL" Documents

You can integrate a document into a workflow process by defining an attribute of type document for an item type, message, or activity. Oracle Workflow supports document types called "PL/SQL" documents, "PL/SQL CLOB" documents, and "PL/SQL BLOB" documents. A PL/SQL document represents data as a character string, a PL/SQL CLOB document represents data as a character large object (CLOB), and a PL/SQL BLOB document represents data as a binary large object (BLOB).

The document-type attribute that you create tells Oracle Workflow how to construct a dynamic call to a PL/SQL procedure that generates the document. You can embed a PL/SQL or PL/SQL CLOB document-type message attribute in a message body to display the document in a notification. You can also attach a PL/SQL, PL/SQL CLOB, or PL/SQL BLOB document-type message attribute to a message to include the document as an attachment to the notification.

The PL/SQL procedures that generate PL/SQL, PL/SQL CLOB, and PL/SQL BLOB documents must follow standard API formats.

Note: If you create a PL/SQL document or a PL/SQL CLOB document that contains HTML, you should take security precautions to ensure that only the HTML code you intend to include is executed. If you retrieve any data from the database at runtime for inclusion in the document, use the WF_NOTIFICATION.SubstituteSpecialChars() API to substitute entity references for any HTML tag characters in that data, so that those characters will not be interpreted as HTML code and executed. See: SubstituteSpecialChars, Oracle Workflow API Reference.

Note that you should not substitute entity references for HTML tags that you include in the document yourself. Otherwise, the document will not be displayed with your intended HTML formatting. You only need to perform this substitution for data that is retrieved from the database at runtime, which may be entered from an external source.

See Also

"PL/SQL" Documents

"PL/SQL CLOB" Documents

"PL/SQL BLOB" Documents


         Previous  Next          Contents  Index  Glossary



Oracle Logo
Copyright © 2003, 2004, Oracle. All rights reserved.