Preface

This guide describes how to use Oracle interMedia ("interMedia"), which ships with Oracle Database.

For information about Oracle Database and the latest features and options that are available to you, see Oracle Database New Features.

Audience

This guide is for application developers and database administrators who are interested in storing, retrieving, and manipulating audio, image, and video data in Oracle Database, including developers of audio, image, and video specialization options. Before using this reference, you should familiarize yourself with the concepts presented in Oracle interMedia User's Guide.

If you are interested in only one particular object type, see Chapter 1 for general introductory information, then, for a description of the methods that are common for all object types, refer to Chapter 3. If, for example, you are interested in the ORDImage object type, refer to Chapter 6, the ORDImage reference chapter for a description of the image-specific methods.

For a description of using the relational interface with images, see Chapter 9.

For information on supported image content and compression formats, see Appendix B. For information about using image processing methods, see Appendix D. Finally, for information about the raw pixel image format, see Appendix E.

Documentation Accessibility

Our goal is to make Oracle products, services, and supporting documentation accessible, with good usability, to the disabled community. To that end, our documentation includes features that make information available to users of assistive technology. This documentation is available in HTML format, and contains markup to facilitate access by the disabled community. Standards will continue to evolve over time, and Oracle Corporation is actively engaged with other market-leading technology vendors to address technical obstacles so that our documentation can be accessible to all of our customers. For additional information, visit the Oracle Accessibility Program Web site at

http://www.oracle.com/accessibility/

Accessibility of Code Examples in Documentation

JAWS, a Windows screen reader, may not always correctly read the code examples in this document. The conventions for writing code require that closing braces should appear on an otherwise empty line; however, JAWS may not always read a line of text that consists solely of a bracket or brace.

Accessibility of Links to External Web Sites in Documentation

This documentation may contain links to Web sites of other companies or organizations that Oracle Corporation does not own or control. Oracle Corporation neither evaluates nor makes any representations regarding the accessibility of these Web sites.

Organization

This guide contains the following chapters and appendixes:

Chapter 1, " Introduction to Oracle interMedia "

Introduces multimedia and Oracle interMedia.

Chapter 2, " Ensuring Compatibility with Evolving interMedia Object Types "

Provides compatibility information for ensuring future compatibility with evolving object types.

Chapter 3, " Common Methods for interMedia Object Types "

Provides reference information about methods that are common to ORDAudio, ORDDoc, ORDImage, and ORDVideo object types.

Chapter 4, " ORDAudio "

Provides reference information on Oracle interMedia ORDAudio object type and methods.

Chapter 5, " ORDDoc "

Provides reference information on Oracle interMedia ORDDoc object type and methods.

Chapter 6, " ORDImage and ORDImageSignature "

Provides reference information on Oracle interMedia ORDImage object type and methods.

Chapter 7, " SQL/MM Still Image "

Provides reference information on SQL/MM Still Image object types, methods, SQL functions and procedures, and views that identify the supported image formats and implementation-defined values

Chapter 8, " ORDVideo "

Provides reference information on Oracle interMedia ORDVideo object type and methods.

Chapter 9, "interMedia Relational Interface Reference "

Provides reference information on Oracle interMedia relational interface methods for the ORDAudio, ORDDoc, ORDImage, and ORDVideo object types.

Chapter 10, " ORDSource "

Provides reference information on Oracle interMedia ORDSource object type and methods.

Appendix A, " Audio File and Compression Formats"

Describes the supported audio data formats.

Appendix B, " Image File and Compression Formats"

Describes the supported image data formats.

Appendix C, " Video File and Compression Formats"

Describes the supported video data formats.

Appendix D, " Image process( ) and processCopy( ) Operators"

Describes the process( ) and processCopy( ) operators.

Appendix E, " Image Raw Pixel Format"

Describes the raw pixel format.

Appendix F, " Exceptions and Error Messages"

Lists exceptions raised, their causes, and user actions to correct them.

Appendix G, " Deprecated Audio and Video Methods "

Lists the ORDAudio and ORDVideo get methods that were deprecated in release 8.1.6

Related Documentation

Note:

For information added after the release of this guide, refer to the online README.txt file in your <ORACLE_HOME> directory. Depending on your operating system, this file may be in:

<ORACLE_HOME>/ord/im/admin/README.txt

Please see your operating system-specific installation guide for more information.

For more information about using interMedia in a development environment, see the following documents in the Oracle Database software documentation set:

Oracle error message documentation is available in HTML only. If you have access to the Oracle Database 10g Documentation CD-ROM only, you can browse the error messages by range. Once you find the specific range, use your browser's "find in page" feature to locate the specific message.When connected to the Internet, you can search for a specific error message using the error message search feature of the Oracle online documentation.

For information about Oracle Locator, see Oracle Spatial User's Guide and Reference.

For reference information on both Oracle interMedia Java Classes and Oracle interMedia Java Classes for Servlets and JSP in Javadoc format, see the Oracle API documentation (also known as Javadoc). The API documentation is available on the Oracle Database 10g Documentation CD-ROM and also from the documentation section of the Oracle Technology Network (OTN) Web site at

http://otn.oracle.com/documentation/

Note that the information in the reference sections of Oracle interMedia Java Classes Reference supersedes the Javadoc documentation.

Many of the examples in this book use the sample schemas of the seed database, which is installed by default when you install Oracle. Refer to Oracle Database Sample Schemas for information on how these schemas were created and how you can use them yourself.

Printed documentation is available for sale in the Oracle Store at

http://oraclestore.oracle.com/

To download free release notes, installation documentation, white papers, or other collateral, please visit the Oracle Technology Network (OTN). You must register online before using OTN; registration is free and can be done at

http://otn.oracle.com/membership/

If you already have a user name and password for OTN, then you can go directly to the documentation section of the OTN Web site at

http://otn.oracle.com/documentation/

Conventions

In this guide, Oracle interMedia is sometimes referred to as interMedia.

In examples, an implied carriage return occurs at the end of each line, unless otherwise noted. You must press the Return key at the end of a line of input.

The following conventions are also used in this guide:

Convention	Meaning
. . .	Vertical ellipsis points in an example mean that information not directly related to the example has been omitted.
. . .	Horizontal ellipsis points in statements or commands mean that parts of the statement or command not directly related to the example have been omitted.
boldface text	Boldface text indicates a term defined in the text.
italic text	Italic text is used for emphasis, book titles, and usr-supplied information.
< >	Angle brackets enclose user-supplied names.
[ ]	Brackets enclose optional clauses from which you can choose one or none.

Changes to This Guide

The following substantive changes have been made to this guide since release 9.0.1:

Documentation for new image objects that comply with the first edition of the ISO/IEC 13249-5:2001 SQL MM Part5:StillImage standard (commonly referred to as the SQL/MM Still Image standard) is added. See Chapter 7.
The following information has been moved to Oracle interMedia User's Guide:
- Extending Oracle interMedia (previously in Chapter 1)
- interMedia architecture (previously in Chapter 1)
- Content-based retrieval concepts (previously Chapter 2)
- interMedia examples (previously Chapter 3)
- Tuning tips for the DBA (previously Chapter 11)
- Sample programs (previously Appendix F)
- Packages or PL/SQL plug-ins (previously included at the end of the chapters that describe ORDAudio, ORDDoc, ORDVideo, and ORDSource)