SQL Developer

I'm running SQL Developer 3.0.04 for Linux (on Ubuntu 10.10) on my desktop. I have also got a Windows 7 guest on the same PC with SQL Developer 3.0.04

The database is Oracle EE 11.2.0.3 running on RHEL5.7 64-bit.

My problem (which I get in both Linux and Windows SQL Developer) is that I get an error when querying the external table. However, the query works fine from SQLPlus (run locally on the server).

To start, I created a directory and external table, of which the oracle user has read/write access at the Unix level to the directory. I have also granted read/write on the directory to the schema owner (AKLREG).

For example:

PREDICT: AKLREG > select * from all_directories;

OWNER			       DIRECTORY_NAME		      DIRECTORY_PATH
------------------------------ ------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------
SYS			       PREDICT_ORACLE_DATA_DIR	      /predict_oracle/data

1 row selected.

# directory and file permissions okay as 'oracle' user
$ ls -l /predict_oracle/data/stuart_mis1541.tab
-rw-rw-r-- 1 testuser orasource 13555 Dec  2 15:18 /predict_oracle/data/stuart_mis1541.tab

$ id
uid=500(oracle) gid=500(oinstall) groups=500(oinstall),501(dba),1070(orasource) context=user_u:system_r:unconfined_t

$ touch /predict_oracle/data/stuart_mis1541.tab 
$  

create table x__mis1541
(   enhi             varchar2(66),
    gend             char,
    ethnicg1         number,
    ethnicg2         number,
    ethnicg3         number,
    dom              varchar2(4),
    mesh             varchar2(8),
    bthdate          date,
    dthdate          date,
    last_updated     date,
    ethnicgp         number,
    dep01            number
)
     ORGANIZATION EXTERNAL 
     ( 
       TYPE ORACLE_LOADER 
       DEFAULT DIRECTORY predict_oracle_data_dir
       ACCESS PARAMETERS 
       ( 
         records delimited by newline 
         nologfile
         nobadfile
         skip 1
         fields terminated by 0x'09' optionally enclosed by '"'
         missing field values are null 
       ) 
       LOCATION ('stuart_mis1541.tab') 
     ) 
     REJECT LIMIT UNLIMITED; 
{code}

From SQL Developer logged in as the schema user AKLREG:
{code}
select count(*) from x__mis1541;

ORA-29913: error in executing ODCIEXTTABLEOPEN callout
ORA-29400: data cartridge error
KUP-04040: file stuart_mis1541.tab in PREDICT_ORACLE_DATA_DIR not found
29913. 00000 -  "error in executing %s callout"
*Cause:    The execution of the specified callout caused an error.
*Action:   Examine the error messages take appropriate action.
{code}

From SQLPlus as the schema owner:
{code}
PREDICT: AKLREG > select count(*) from x__mis1541;

  COUNT(*)
----------
	99

1 row selected.
{code}

Looking through this forum, I found this post:    https://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=1074582&start=0&tstart=0

So,... I run this in SQLPlus with the details applicable to my directory and file:

{code}
SQL > !cat x.sql
declare
     l_file utl_file.file_type;
     l_file_name varchar2(20) := 'stuart_mis1541.tab';
     l_exists boolean;
     l_length number;
     l_blksize number;
    begin
     utl_file.fgetattr('PREDICT_ORACLE_DATA_DIR', l_file_name, l_exists, l_length, l_blksize);
    
    if (l_exists) then
     dbms_output.put_line('File '||l_file_name||' exists');
    else
     dbms_output.put_line('File '||l_file_name||' does not exist');
    end if;
   end;
/
SQL> set serveroutput on
SQL> @x
File stuart_mis1541.tab exists

PL/SQL procedure successfully completed.

PREDICT: SURE006 > 
{code}

When I run this from SQL Developer, I get:
{code}
anonymous block completed
File stuart_mis1541.tab does not exist
{code}

This should work according to http://sueharper.blogspot.com/2006/08/i-didnt-know-you-could-do-that.html

I would try and create an external table manually, but when go:  Create table, Advanced, select External Table radio button, then DDL, I can not paste my code in (does this under Win 7 and Linux SQL for Developer 3.0).

Is querying external tables within SQL Developer broken,  or am I doing something wrong?