3
Image Object Types and Procedures

Oracle8 Image Cartridge consists of two object data types:

• ORDImgB supports images stored in an Oracle8 binary large object (BLOB)
• ORDImgF supports images stored in an Oracle8 external binary file (BFILE)

The cartridge includes four user-visible procedures:

• copyContent: creates a copy of an image in another BLOB (available only for BLOBs, and not BFILEs)
• process: performs in-place image processing on a BLOB
• processCopy: performs image processing while copying an image to another BLOB
• setProperties: fills in the attribute fields of an image (ORDImgB or ORDImgF data type)

When you are storing or copying images, you must first create an empty BLOB in the table. The examples in this chapter assume that the following table, ordimgtab, has been created to store three images. Three empty rows have been created as follows:

create table ordimgtab(col1 number, col2 ORDSYS.ORDImgB);
grant select, update on ordimgtab to ordsys;
insert into ordimgtab values
  (1, ORDSYS.ORDImgB(empty_blob(), NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL));
insert into ordimgtab values
  (2, ORDSYS.ORDImgB(empty_blob(), NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL));
insert into ordimgtab values
  (3, ORDSYS.ORDImgB(empty_blob(), NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL));
commit;

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ORDImgB Object Data Type

The ORDImgB object data type (ODT) is used for basic storage and retrieval of image data within an Oracle database. This object data type is defined as follows:

CREATE TYPE ORDImgB AS OBJECT
(
-- TYPE ATTRIBUTES
content             BLOB,
height              INTEGER,  
width               INTEGER,
contentLength       INTEGER,
fileFormat          VARCHAR2(64),
contentFormat       VARCHAR2(64),
compressionFormat   VARCHAR2(64),
--- METHOD DECLARATION
  MEMBER PROCEDURE copyContent(dest IN OUT ORDImgB),
  MEMBER PROCEDURE setProperties(SELF IN OUT ORDImgB),	
  MEMBER PROCEDURE process    (SELF    IN OUT ORDImgB,
                               command  IN     VARCHAR2)
  MEMBER PROCEDURE processCopy(command  IN     VARCHAR2,
                               dest     IN OUT BLOB)
);

Where:

• content: Stored image
• height: Height of the image in pixels
• width: Width of image in pixels
• contentLength: Size of the on-disk image file in bytes
• fileFormat: File type of image (such as, TIFF, JFIF)
• contentFormat: Type of image (such as, monochrome, 8-bit gray scale)
• compressionFormat: Compression type of image

In PL/SQL data is moved with the DBMS LOB package. From the client, data is moved via OCI LOB calls. The ORDimgB ODT does not supply piece-wise routines for moving data.

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ORDImgF Object Data Type

The ORDImgF object data type is used for retrieval of image data stored in external files. BFILE images are assumed to be read-only and this is reflected in the member procedures defined on the object data type.

CREATE TYPE ORDImgF AS OBJECT
(
-- TYPE ATTRIBUTES
content             BFILE,
height              INTEGER,  
width               INTEGER,
contentLength       INTEGER,
fileFormat          VARCHAR2(64),
contentFormat       VARCHAR2(64),
compressionFormat   VARCHAR2(64),

-- METHOD DECLARATION
MEMBER PROCEDURE copyContent(dest IN OUT ORDImgB),
MEMBER PROCEDURE setProperties(SELF IN OUT ORDImgF),
MEMBER PROCEDURE processCopy(command IN VARCHAR2,   
                             dest    IN OUT BLOB)
);

Where:

• content: Stored image
• height: Height of the image in pixels
• width: Width of image in pixels
• contentLength: Size of the on-disk image file in bytes
• fileFormat: File type of image (such as, TIFF, JFIF)
• contentFormat: Type of image (such as, monochrome, 8-bit gray scale)
• compressionFormat: Compression type of image

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copyContent Procedure

Format

copyContent (dest IN OUT BLOB);

Description

Copy an image without changing it.

Parameters

dest

The destination of the new image.

Usage

Copies the image data into the supplied BLOB.

Example

Create a copy of the image in type image1 into a BLOB called myblob:

image1.copyContent(myblob);

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process Procedure

Format

process (command IN VARCHAR2 );

Description

Perform one or more image processing techniques on a BLOB, writing the image back on itself.

Parameters

command

A list of image processing changes to make for the image.

Usage

Change one or more of the image attributes shown in the following table:

Table 3-1 Image Processing Parameters

Parameter Name	Usage	Values
fileFormat	file format of the image	GIFF, TIFF, PCXF, PICT, RASF, CALS, BMPF, TGAF, JFIF
contentFormat	imagetype/pixel/data format.	MONOCHROME, RAW, 4BITGRAYSCALE, 4BITGREYSCALE, 8 BITGRAYSCALE, 8 BITGREYSCALE, 1BITLUT, 2BITLUT, 4 BITLUT, 8BITLUT, 16BITRGB, 24BITRGB, 32BITRGB, 24BITPLANAR
scale	scale factor (for example, 0.5 or 2.0)	<FLOAT> positive
xscale	X-axis scale factor (default is 1)	<FLOAT> positive
yscale	Y-axis scale factor (default is 1)	<FLOAT> positive
compressionQuality	compression quality	MAXCOMPRATIO, MAXINTEGRIT, LOWCOMP, MEDCOMP, HIGHCOMP
compressionFormat	compression type/format	JPEG, SUNRLE, BMPRLE, TARGARLE, LZW, LZWHDIFF, FAX3, FAX4, HUFFMAN3, Packbits, GIFLZW
cut	Window to cut or crop (origin.x origin.y width height)	(Integer Integer Integer Integer) limit < 65535

Examples

Change the file format of image1 to GIF:

image1.process('fileFormat=GIFF');

Change image1 to use lower quality JPEG compression and double the length of the image along the X-axis:

image1.process('compressionFormat=JPEG, compressionQuality=LOWCOMP, 
xscale="2.0"'); 

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processCopy Procedure

Format

processCopy (command IN VARCHAR2,

dest IN OUT BLOB);

Description

Copy an image BLOB to another BLOB.

Function Parameters

command

A list of image processing changes to make for the image in the new copy.

dest

The destination of the new image.

Usage

See Table 3-1, "Image Processing Parameters".

Example

Copy an image, changing the file format, compression format, and data format in the destination image:

create or replace procedure is 
  imgB1     ORDSYS.ORDImgB; 
  imgB4     ORDSYS.ORDImgB; 
  mycommand   VARCHAR2(400); 
begin 
  select col2 into imgB1 from ordimgtab  where col1 = 1; 
  select col2 into imgB4 from ordimgtab  where col1 = 4 for update; 
  command:= 'fileFormat=tiff compressionFormat = packbits 
  contentFormat = 8bitlut'; 
  imgB1.processcopy(mycommand,imgB4.content); 
  imgB4.setproperties;
end; 

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setProperties Procedure

Format

setProperties();

Description

Write the characteristics of an image (BLOB or BFILE) into the appropriate attribute fields.

Parameters

None

Usage

After you have copied or stored an image, call this procedure to set the current characteristics of the new content.

This procedure sets the following information about an image:

• height in pixels
• width in pixels
• data size of the on-disk image in bytes
• file type (TIFF, JFIF, and so forth)
• image type (monochrome, 8-bit gray scale, and so forth)
• compression type (JPEG, LZW, and so forth)

Example

Select the type, and then set the attributes using the setProperties procedure.

imgB1 ORDSYS.imgB;
.
.
.
select col2 into imgB1 from ordimgtab where col1 = 1 for update;
imgB1.setProperties;
dbms_output.put_line('image width = '|| imgB1.width );
dbms_output.put_line('image height = '|| imgB1.height );
dbms_output.put_line('image size = '|| imgB1.contentLength );
dbms_output.put_line('image file type = '|| imgB1.fileFormat );
dbms_output.put_line('image type = '|| imgB1.contentFormat );
dbms_output.put_line('image compression = '|| imgB1.compressionFormat );

Example output:

image width = 360
image height = 490
image size = 59650
image file type = JFIF
image type = 24BITRGB
image compression = JPEG

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