trap for missing JPG file when read from file

[bookouri]

I have a report that displays images that are "read from file" from jpg files. i.e I have a select something like:
select 'd:\images\'||emp_id||'.jpg' my_photo, Then I do "read from file" in the report and the correct .jpg file is retrieved. The problem occurs when the report hits a record that does not have a jpg file. The report crashes at that point and will not continue. How can I trap this error so the report can continue? All records have a valid emp_id so I cant do an nvl(emp_id,99999). Since all records have a valid emp_id I also cant use the report property for null value, the value is never null, the physical JPG file may not exist, but the emp_id always exists.

any suggestions would be appreciated..

 

[bookouri]

After researching this one, I found that you have to do something like:

"Best way to achieve this would be to create a formula column that returns a filename, checking on 'read from file' and 'image type' in the data model, and in the formula, ensuring the existance of the file thru text_io.fopen which will raise an exception if the file does not exist, in which case you can then display some sort of "file nonexistant" image."