I am trying to store zip files in Oracle using DBI/DBD::Oracle. System particulars are:

Oracle8i Enterprise Edition Release 8.1.7.0.0
perl, version 5.005_03 built for alpha-dec_osf
$DBI::VERSION = "1.13";
$DBD::Oracle::VERSION = '1.03';

My table has two columns

FILE_NAME VARCHAR2(100)
ZIPFILE   BLOB

The code I have tried is as follows:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);
use DBI;
use DBD::Oracle qw(:ora_types);
require "../cbt-lib.pl"; # has header/footer and oracle connect functi
+ons

&header("blob_test");

my $dbh = &oracleConnectAuth("WRITE");
my $file_name = 'test.zip';

$dbh->{LongReadLen} = 20000 * 1024;
&put_blob($dbh,$file_name);
&get_blob($dbh,$file_name);

$dbh->disconnect;
&footer;
exit 0;


sub put_blob 
{
my ($dbh,$file_name) = @_;
    
my $data;
my $blob_data;
  
open (INFILE, "<$file_name") || die "could not $file_name";
binmode INFILE, ":raw";

while(read(INFILE,$data,1024))
   {
   $blob_data .= $data;
   }
close INFILE || die "could not close INfile"; 

my $sqlstring = "delete from cbt_blob_test";
$dbh->do ($sqlstring) or die "delete:<br>$DBI::errstr<br>$sqlstring";

$sqlstring = "INSERT INTO CBT_BLOB_TEST (FILE_NAME,ZIPFILE) VALUES (?,
+?)";
my $sth = $dbh->prepare ($sqlstring) or die "prepare:<br>$DBI::errstr<
+br>$sqlstring";
$sth->bind_param(1, $file_name)                         or die "bind 1
+:<br>$DBI::errstr<br>$sqlstring";
$sth->bind_param(2, $blob_data, {ora_types=>ORA_BLOB} ) or die "bind 2
+:<br>$DBI::errstr<br>$sqlstring";
$sth->execute() or die "execute:\n$DBI::errstr\n$sqlstring";

$sth->finish;
$dbh->commit;
}

sub get_blob
{
my ($dbh,$file_name) = @_;

my $sqlstring = "SELECT ZIPFILE FROM CBT_BLOB_TEST WHERE FILE_NAME = '
+$file_name' ";
print "$sqlstring<br>";
my $blobdata = &getDBdata ($sqlstring,$dbh);

open (OUTFILE, ">blob_test_output") || die "could not open OUTfile";
binmode (OUTFILE);
print OUTFILE $blobdata;
close OUTFILE || die "could not close OUTfile"; 
}
[download]

The 'execute' statement in 'get_blob' returns the following error:

ORA-01465: invalid hex number (DBD ERROR: OCIStmtExecute)

I see a lot of questions about blobs and Oracle on the web, but have yet to find much useful code. 

Any assistance would be appreciated.