Let me get back to the idea that what I am striving for is simplicity. External tables are a great example of taking a need "interacting with data in files outside the database" and making it really simple. I would love to see something like this... create ftp 'myftp' port 9000 default '/tmp/inbound'; grant all on myftp to scott; create table foo (x blob); alter table foo use myftp; presto! all of a sudden you get a couple java procs that are acting as ftp servers for the database and handling all requests coming into port 9000. Scott can ftp files into the database without requiring a OS login. Of course I will want some DD tables/views such as V$FTP_STATS etc...of course if Larry's vision of the database becoming the OS comes true then perhaps things really will be this simple. I do see the beauty of that idea. My bet is the demos are as simple as that but I might be wrong! -----Original Message----- From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Christian Antognini Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2005 11:58 PM To: RMohan@xxxxxxxxxxx Cc: oracle-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: RE: Goofy Late Night Idea? Hi Ross >The only demos I see there are just kind of vanilla "use JDBC" for = =3D3D >loading stuff. I kept thinking Ethan was going for direct dbms data = =3D3D >injection via library through EXTPROC (in "wrong" direction, of =3D course), =3D3D >without requiring=3D3D20 >JDBC. > >To do this, I guess you could dump a client-based *.doc via ftp into a =3D =3D3D >dbms-server based <directory> and have a db-internal process polling = =3D for =3D3D >results in <directory> and formatting same appropriately (via EXTPROC = =3D =3D3D >and library def) for storage. You get ability to asynchronously upload =3D =3D3D >stuff and format it into db mediated by EXTPROC > >This would obviate the use of JDBC to inject data in the db.=3D3D20 I didn't give a look to the link... anyway I know for sure that it's =3D possible to use a standard FTP client to load data in the DB (in fact I =3D do such a demo every time I teach either a 9i New Feature course or a = =3D XDB course...). >(Of course, it IS very late) It depends where you are ;-) I'm sitting at 6:57AM... Cheers Chris -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l