ORALONG.EXE: Use RDO with Oracle LONG/LONG RAW Datatypes

The "Working with LONG, LONG RAW and VARCHAR2(2000) Oracle Datatypes" white paper is intended to clarify the handling of the Oracle datatypes LONG, LONG RAW and VARCHAR2(2000) when they are used with Microsoft Visual Basic and Remote Data Objects (RDO). A sample project is attached that illustrates storing and retrieving these datatypes. The project uses straight Visual Basic 5.0 RDO code to store and retrieve this data as well as using stored procedures.

Note It is not recommended to store BLOB or Long Text data in a table. A more efficient way is to store file pointers in the table that will locate the actual files. Other Microsoft white papers go into detail on this method.

The following files are available for download from the Microsoft Download Center:
For additional information about how to download Microsoft Support files, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Microsoft scanned this file for viruses. Microsoft used the most current virus-detection software that was available on the date that the file was posted. The file is stored on security-enhanced servers that help to prevent any unauthorized changes to the file.
OraLong.exe is a self-extracting file that will, after execution, produce a Microsoft WORD 7.0 document (Ora_Long.DOC), an HTML document (Ora_Long.HTM) and a Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 project named Oracle_Long.VPB. The document thoroughly describes the Visual Basic application included and gives pointers about using Oracle LONG, LONG RAW and VARCHAR(2000) datatypes.

Also included in the file list is a .txt file named Ora_Long.OSP that has all the Oracle PL/SQL scripts necessary to support the Visual Basic application. Run Ora_Long.OSP from Oracle SQL*PLUS to create the table and stored procedures on your Oracle server.

After downloading OraLong.exe, place it in a new folder and run the file to extract the supporting files for this white paper.

In addition to Visual Basic, you must install MDAC.
For additional information about acquiring and installing MDAC, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
(c) Microsoft Corporation 1998, All Rights Reserved.
Contributions by Ron Nelson, Microsoft Corporation