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Character Conversion and Error Detection

Character conversion occurs when data is exchanged between Siebel Business Applications 8.0 and Oracle Applications that are using different character set encodings.

Outbound Data

For outbound data moving from Siebel Business Applications to Oracle Applications, the data is first converted from the Siebel database (if the Siebel database is operating in a codepage environment) to the Siebel object manager. The first conversion is handled automatically by the Siebel data manager layer. This conversion should always be successful since Unicode character sets can represent any characters used by non-Unicode character sets, such as codepages.

The second conversion is performed by the Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) mechanism interfaced through the Siebel Database Adapter. This conversion can fail if data moves from a Unicode character set to a non-Unicode character set, such as a codepage. The current ODBC driver for the Oracle Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) does not report character conversion errors and may commit errant data to the Oracle Application's interface tables and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), resulting in data corruption.

To prevent this type of data corruption, implement character conversion error checking in your integration workflow to trap errors before sending data to the Oracle Applications.

Inbound Data

For inbound data moving from Oracle Applications to Siebel Business Applications, the ODBC driver first converts data from the Oracle Application (if the Oracle Application is operating in a codepage environment) to the Siebel object manager (which is always running in a Unicode environment). This conversion should always be successful since Unicode character sets can represent any characters used by non-Unicode character sets, such as codepages.

A second conversion may take place when data moves from the Siebel object manager to the Siebel database if the Siebel database is operating in a codepage environment. This second conversion is performed by the Siebel data manager layer and can fail if data moves from a Unicode character set to a non-Unicode character set, such as a codepage. Unlike the ODBC driver for the Oracle RDBMS, the Siebel data manager avoids data corruption by trapping data conversion errors, reporting them, and not committing the errant data to the Siebel database. However, you may still want to include exception-handling steps to handle the reported error accordingly.

Detecting Errors With the Transcode Business Service

You can use the Transcode business service by adding it as a step in your integration workflow. This business service uses a property set as input, validates and converts it from one character set encoding to a different character set encoding, and outputs the result in another property set. Figure 4 shows how this mechanism can be incorporated into an existing workflow. For more information on the Transcode business service, see Siebel Global Deployment Guide.

Figure 4. Transcode Business Service for Connector for Oracle Applications