Accessing Database Photos from Query Access Service

I have been working with the PeopleTools 8.54 REST Query Access Services. I would absolutely LOVE
them if they returned JSON instead of XML. With a little help from x2js I am able to work around this
"shortcoming." One specific challenge I faced was accessing image data. For example, with PeopleSoft
query I can see who has photos in PS_EMPL_PHOTO, but I can't see the actual uploaded photo. With a
little help from Oracle and a query expression, however, I can convert the photo blob into base64:
SELECT UTL_RAW.CAST_TO_VARCHAR2(UTL_ENCODE.BASE64_ENCODE(EMPLOYEE_PHOTO))
FROM PS_EMPL_PHOTO
WHERE EMPLID = 'KU0003'
The only problem with this approach is that Oracle database has a maximum size limit on data that can
be encoded and most of the photos I have seen exceed that maximum. The way I chose to work around
this limitation is to substring the blob and encode it in fragments. I create a separate column for each
fragment, and then concatenate them together in the REST client. Here is some sample SQL from a
PeopleSoft query. Each of the CASE statements is a query expression.
SELECT
CASE
WHEN DBMS_LOB.GETLENGTH(EMPLOYEE_PHOTO) > 1455 THEN
UTL_RAW.CAST_TO_VARCHAR2(UTL_ENCODE.BASE64_ENCODE(DBMS_LOB.SUBSTR(EMPLOYEE_PH
OTO, 1455, 1)))
WHEN DBMS_LOB.GETLENGTH(EMPLOYEE_PHOTO) <= 1455 THEN
UTL_RAW.CAST_TO_VARCHAR2(UTL_ENCODE.BASE64_ENCODE(EMPLOYEE_PHOTO))
END AS C1,
CASE
WHEN DBMS_LOB.GETLENGTH(EMPLOYEE_PHOTO) > 2910 THEN
UTL_RAW.CAST_TO_VARCHAR2(UTL_ENCODE.BASE64_ENCODE(DBMS_LOB.SUBSTR(EMPLOYEE_PH
OTO, 1455, 1456)))
WHEN DBMS_LOB.GETLENGTH(EMPLOYEE_PHOTO) <= 2910 AND
DBMS_LOB.GETLENGTH(EMPLOYEE_PHOTO) > 1455 THEN
UTL_RAW.CAST_TO_VARCHAR2(UTL_ENCODE.BASE64_ENCODE(DBMS_LOB.SUBSTR(EMPLOYEE_PH
OTO, DBMS_LOB.GETLENGTH(EMPLOYEE_PHOTO) - 1455, 1456)))
END AS C2,
CASE
WHEN DBMS_LOB.GETLENGTH(EMPLOYEE_PHOTO) > 4365 THEN
UTL_RAW.CAST_TO_VARCHAR2(UTL_ENCODE.BASE64_ENCODE(DBMS_LOB.SUBSTR(EMPLOYEE_PH
OTO, 1455, 2911)))
WHEN DBMS_LOB.GETLENGTH(EMPLOYEE_PHOTO) <= 4365 AND
DBMS_LOB.GETLENGTH(EMPLOYEE_PHOTO) > 2910 THEN
UTL_RAW.CAST_TO_VARCHAR2(UTL_ENCODE.BASE64_ENCODE(DBMS_LOB.SUBSTR(EMPLOYEE_PH
OTO, DBMS_LOB.GETLENGTH(EMPLOYEE_PHOTO) - 2910, 2911)))
END AS C3,
CASE
WHEN DBMS_LOB.GETLENGTH(EMPLOYEE_PHOTO) > 5820 THEN
UTL_RAW.CAST_TO_VARCHAR2(UTL_ENCODE.BASE64_ENCODE(DBMS_LOB.SUBSTR(EMPLOYEE_PH
OTO, 1455, 4366)))
WHEN DBMS_LOB.GETLENGTH(EMPLOYEE_PHOTO) <= 5820 AND
DBMS_LOB.GETLENGTH(EMPLOYEE_PHOTO) > 4365 THEN
UTL_RAW.CAST_TO_VARCHAR2(UTL_ENCODE.BASE64_ENCODE(DBMS_LOB.SUBSTR(EMPLOYEE_PH
OTO, DBMS_LOB.GETLENGTH(EMPLOYEE_PHOTO) - 4365, 4366)))
END AS C4,
CASE
WHEN DBMS_LOB.GETLENGTH(EMPLOYEE_PHOTO) > 7275 THEN
UTL_RAW.CAST_TO_VARCHAR2(UTL_ENCODE.BASE64_ENCODE(DBMS_LOB.SUBSTR(EMPLOYEE_PH
OTO, 1455, 5821)))
WHEN DBMS_LOB.GETLENGTH(EMPLOYEE_PHOTO) <= 7275 AND
DBMS_LOB.GETLENGTH(EMPLOYEE_PHOTO) > 5820 THEN
UTL_RAW.CAST_TO_VARCHAR2(UTL_ENCODE.BASE64_ENCODE(DBMS_LOB.SUBSTR(EMPLOYEE_PH
OTO, DBMS_LOB.GETLENGTH(EMPLOYEE_PHOTO) - 5820, 5821)))
END AS C5
FROM PS_EMPL_PHOTO
WHERE EMPLID = 'KUL704'
On the client I use something like this:
var data = data:image/jpeg;base64," + columns.join("");
The end result is something like this (right-click to see base64 data):