Hi everyone!
I need your help with an integration challenge I'm currently facing.
Soon, in my project, we will gain access to a SQL Server table that contains a column with images or documents stored in BLOB (Binary Large Object) format. Our objective is to read these BLOBs from Appian and convert them into Appian documents that can be correctly viewed and managed within the platform.
To test the feasibility, I tried creating an integration that calls a Web API. This Web API, in a simplified manner, receives a binary as a parameter and returns the same binary to me. When configuring the integration in Appian to interpret the response as an Appian document, the documents are generated correctly in the designated folder, and the file extension matches the original (e.g., .pdf, .jpg).
However, the problem arises when trying to open these documents in Appian: the viewer indicates that "the format is incompatible". Furthermore, I've noticed that the size of the files generated in Appian does not match the size of the original files.
My main suspicion is that perhaps Appian's internal "binary to Appian document" conversion expects a "pure" or specific binary format, and it doesn't correctly handle BLOBs as they come directly from SQL Server (which might have some header or particular format inherent to how SQL Server stores them).
What options do I have to address this?
I'm looking for the best way to:
Read and extract the binary content from those SQL Server BLOB fields in an Appian-compatible way.
Convert that binary into a functional Appian document that can be viewed without issues.
I appreciate any ideas, experiences, or design patterns you can share. Thank you very much in advance for your help!
Regards,
Kevin D.C. Burgos
Discussion posts and replies are publicly visible
I can think of an option to first convert the BLOBs into base64 inside the database, and then use the following plugin to get them into Appian.
Base64 Document Database Integration
Appian does not support BLOB types Unsupported Database Columns in Synced Record Types directly.https://docs.appian.com/suite/help/24.1/unsupported-db-columns-synced-record-types.htmlModify your Web API to return Base64-encoded strings instead of raw binary. In Appian, use todocument(base64decode(yourBase64String), "filename.pdf") to convert. This avoids binary corruption and file size mismatches.https://docs.appian.com/suite/help/25.2/Integration_Object.htmlOrUse the RDBMS BLOB Utility plugin RDBMS Blob Utility from AppMarket for direct BLOB handling.https://community.appian.com/b/appmarket/posts/rdbms-blob-utility