I'm trying to use Crystal Reports XI with an Oracle database. The database itself is a commercial product with a Uniface front-end, but the vendor provides read-only access so that we can use third-party tools to supplement their canned reports.

My problem lies in getting images out of the database. The images are stored in BLOB fields. But they don't work with CR, in spite of the BLOB support.

I've now been told that when the raw image data is stored it gets preceded by a #. They also sent me some sample Cold Fusion code that strips in and then displays the file (i.e. prints the raw data as an "image/jpeg" mime type).

I think it would be straightforward to do the manipulation of the data in a CR custom function, but I can't figure out

a) can I get CR to dump the raw contents of the BLOB into a variable or array that I can then manipulate in a function?

b) having done that, can I then get the data displayed on the report?

Thanks for any thoughts you have.

Thanks, that's worth pursuing...

Also, is it possible to insert the image by URL, but construct the URL on the fly with a formula? (With my current skill set I'd get it done faster writing a CGI in perl to return the image on the fly via HTTP than by doing it in SQL or visual basic (which I assume would be another way around).

Thanks, that works great! (Now I just need to write that CGI . . . . .)