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About Character Set Encodings and Siebel Applications

Character set encodings are used in multiple places in Siebel Business Applications.

• Enterprise DB Server Code Page system preference. This system preference is set during Siebel Enterprise Server installation and configuration to reflect the character set that the administrator believes has been set up in the database. This value must not be modified, because it is used at configuration time to select the correct database schema to be used. (Siebel Business Applications provide customized schemas to match each database and character set.)

  For more information, see the Siebel Installation Guide for the operating system you are using.

• SIEBEL_CODEPAGE (UNIX environment variable). This environment variable is created and set for Siebel Business Applications to indicate the code page that the applications will assume if Siebel configuration files (CFG, CSS, SWT files, and so on) have not been saved as Unicode UTF-8—as they would normally be saved. This variable generally does not need to be set explicitly. If you must set it, the value can be a subset of character set encodings, except UTF-8 and UTF-16.

  For more information, see the Siebel Installation Guide for UNIX.

• Character conversion argument. This argument is available in the following business services:
  • Transcode Service business service. Accepts all supported character set encoding names. This business service is normally used for data validation and to prevent data that cannot be converted to the appropriate code page from entering or leaving the Siebel application.

    NOTE:  Whenever possible, use the EAI business service or the XML Converter business service to convert data.

  • EAI business service (MQ Series, DLL, File, HTTP, MSMQ). Accepts a subset of character set encodings.
  • XML Converter business service. Accepts a large number of character set encodings.

    When business services are invoked from a workflow, the valid set of encodings is controlled by a picklist. If the business services are invoked through scripting or a similar mechanism, the character set name is supplied textually.

Special Character Set Encodings and Business Services

In addition to the character set encodings (code pages) listed in Siebel System Requirements and Supported Platforms on Siebel SupportWeb, some Siebel business services take special character set encodings as inputs.

Updating Currency Symbols

In some situations, you may need to update your currency symbols. For example, if you are operating in a Unicode environment, but your currency seed data was originally installed in a non-Unicode environment, you must update your currencies to include any currency symbols you require that were not part of your prior non-Unicode environment.

For information about activating and defining currencies, see Siebel Applications Administration Guide.