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Converting JSON to RTF using Oracle PL/SQL

Converting JSON to RTF using Oracle PL/SQL

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Tom Lieber
·

3 min read

Today, we are going to explore a fascinating and highly specific task: converting JSON data to Rich Text Format (RTF) using Oracle's PL/SQL. While there is no direct way provided by Oracle to achieve this, with a bit of creativity and a sound understanding of both JSON and RTF, we can find a solution.

JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) is a widely used lightweight data-interchange format, which is easy to generate, parse and process for humans and machines alike.

RTF (Rich Text Format) is a universal document file format developed by Microsoft. It's capable of preserving complex document formatting across a wide array of document processing applications.

It's important to remember that this process involves understanding and properly translating JSON values into equivalent RTF control words, symbols, and groups.

Step 1: Parsing JSON Data in PL/SQL

The initial step is to parse JSON data. For this, Oracle provides us with the APEX_JSON package which facilitates the conversion of JSON to PL/SQL types and vice versa.

Here is a simple example of parsing a JSON string:

DECLARE
  json_value VARCHAR2(32767);
BEGIN
  json_value := '{"key":"value"}';
  APEX_JSON.PARSE(json_value);
  DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE(APEX_JSON.GET_VARCHAR2(p_path => 'key'));
END;

This script outputs the string "value", which is associated with the "key" in the JSON string.

Step 2: Translating JSON to RTF

RTF content is primarily text-based, which is wrapped with RTF groups, control words, and control symbols to format the document. Each piece of JSON data will need to be individually processed and formatted into RTF.

Let's demonstrate this with a basic example. Suppose you have the following JSON:

{
  "text": "Hello, World!",
  "bold": true
}

In RTF, this could be translated as follows:

{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0 Arial;}}{\colortbl;\red0\green0\blue0;\red255\green0\blue0;}
\viewkind4\uc1\pard\lang1033\f0
{\b Hello, World!}
\par
}

In PL/SQL, we need to implement the logic to parse the JSON data and generate the RTF content accordingly:

DECLARE
  json_value VARCHAR2(32767);
  rtf_value VARCHAR2(32767);
BEGIN
  json_value := '{"text":"Hello, World!","bold":true}';
  APEX_JSON.PARSE(json_value);

  rtf_value := '{\rtf1\ansi\deff0{\fonttbl{\f0 Arial;}}{\colortbl;\red0\green0\blue0;\red255\green0\blue0;}\viewkind4\uc1\pard\lang1033\f0';

  IF APEX_JSON.GET_BOOLEAN(p_path => 'bold') THEN
    rtf_value := rtf_value || '{\b ' || APEX_JSON.GET_VARCHAR2(p_path => 'text') || '}';
  ELSE
    rtf_value := rtf_value || APEX_JSON.GET_VARCHAR2(p_path => 'text');
  END IF;

  rtf_value := rtf_value || '\par}';

  DBMS_OUTPUT.PUT_LINE

(rtf_value);
END;

This PL/SQL block will output the RTF content that represents the "Hello, World!" text in bold.

Conclusion

Although this blog post provides a simple solution to convert JSON to RTF using Oracle's PL/SQL, you may need to adjust and extend the provided scripts based on the complexity of your JSON data and RTF requirements. RTF is a rich format supporting various text properties, images, tables and so on, so creating an all-encompassing converter could be a quite complex task. However, for simple JSON-to-RTF conversions, this approach should work fine!

Remember, programming is about creativity and problem-solving. I hope this post has helped stimulate both for you. Happy coding!

Oldies but Goldies:
Oracle APEX - Mumblings of a New User: Generic RTF Documents - Part 5 - The End (rchallis.blogspot.com)

Oraclejson