D Globalization Support

The main aspect of the Globalization Support in Oracle Connect for IMS, VSAM, and Adabas Gateways is the recognition of the different characters associated with a language and the way they are encoded in various operating systems and data sources. For each supported language, a special definition file called a character set file is supplied where all the language related information is stored. For complex languages such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, a special library is also provided where specific conversion rules are implemented.

As a distributed product that accesses heterogeneous data sources on varied platforms, Oracle Connect for IMS, VSAM, and Adabas Gateways offers seamless conversion of text between the different character encodings used on the different platforms. Examples of such automatic conversion include:

Getting this kind of seamless Globalization Support requires the proper setting of the character set definitions according to the kind of encoding in use in the various data sources and platforms.

This section discusses the different encoding schemes in use, the character set definitions required and other Globalization Support related aspects, and contains information on the following topics:

Character Set Terminology

The following terminology is used to describe character sets.

Single-Byte Character Sets

In a single-byte character set, each character is represented by a single-byte value, that is, a number between 1 and 255, inclusive. Single-byte character sets are typical of Western languages. For example, in the ISO-8859-1 (Latin) character set, the character 'A' is represented by the single byte value of 65, whereas in the US-EBCDIC character set (or in the IBM-037 character set), the same character is represented by the single-byte value of 193.

Multibyte Character Sets

In a multibyte character set, some or all of the characters are represented by more than one byte value. Multibyte character sets are typical in complex languages such as Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

Unicode Character Sets

Unicode is a universal numbering of all known characters, with each character identified by a unique number - its codepoint. Unicode has several encoding schemes, of which Oracle Application Development Framework Controller API Reference supports UTF-8 and, to a lesser extent, UCS-2.

Since the product uses 8-bit characters, the only Unicode encoding that qualifies as a 'character set' is the UTF-8 encoding. The product supports UCS-2 in its data sources (through special Unicode data types).

Customized Character Sets

The Globalization Support of Oracle Connect can be customized to add new languages and character sets not currently supported as well as to introduce special conversion cases. The customization involves editing special character set source files and building .cp files from them using the NAV_UTIL program.

Globalization Support Settings

The minimal globalization Support configuration amounts to adding the HS_LANGUAGE parameter to the HS initialization parameter file and telling the product what national language is in use.

For information on how to add the parameter to the HS initialization parameter file, see Oracle Database Gateway for IMS, VSAM, and Adabas Installation and Configuration Guide for Microsoft Windows or Oracle Database Gateway for IMS, VSAM, and Adabas Installation and Configuration Guide for AIX 5L Based Systems (64-Bit), HP-UX Itanium, Solaris Operating System (SPARC 64-Bit), Linux x86, and Linux x86-64.

To set the language in Studio

  1. In the Oracle Studio for IMS, VSAM, and Adabas Gateways Design perspective, open the machine for which you want to set the language.

  2. Expand the Bindings and right-click the NAV binding.

  3. Select Edit Binding.

  4. Open the Misc category and fill in the language parameter with the desired language code from Globalization Support Language Codes.

  5. Save the change. New servers will use the language selected.

When a language is selected, a default character set is automatically used based on the language and the platform. Table D-1 summarizes the languages, their codes, and their character sets.

Table D-1 Globalization Support Language Codes

EBCDIC CP Name Description Base ASCII CP Multibyte

AR8EBCDIC420

Arabic bilingual

AR8ISO8859P6

 

AR8EBCDICX

Arabic + Latin

AR8ISO8859P6

 

BLT8EBCDIC1112

Baltic multilingual

BLT8ISO8859P13

 

CL8EBCDIC1025

Cyrillic multilingual

CL8ISO8859P5

 

CL8EBCDIC1158

Cyrillic Ukraine + Euro

CLMSWIN1251

 

D8EBCDIC1141

Austria - Germany + Euro

WE8ISO8859P15

 

D8EBCDIC273

Germany - Austria

WE8ISO8859P1

 

DK8EBCDIC1142

Denmark - Norway + Euro

WE8ISO8859P15

 

DK8EBCDIC277

Denmark - Norway

NE8ISO8859P10

 

EE8EBCDIC870

Latin 2 multilingual

EE8ISO8859P2

 

EL8EBCDIC423

Greece

EL8ISO8859P7

 

EL8EBCDIC875

Greece

EL8ISO8859P7

 

EL8EBCDIC875R

Greece

EL8ISO8859P7

 

F8EBCDIC1147

France + Euro

WE8ISO8859P15

 

F8EBCDIC297

France

WE8ISO8859P1

 

I8EBCDIC1144

Italy + Euro

WE8ISO8859P15

 

I8EBCDIC280

Italy

WE8ISO8859P1

 

IW8EBCDIC1086

Hebrew

IW8ISO8859P8

 

IW8EBCDIC424

Hebrew

IW8ISO8859P8

 

JA16DBCS

Japan

JA16SJIS

Yes

JA16EBCDIC930

Japan

JA16SJIS

Yes

KO16DBCS

Korea

KO16KSC5601

Yes

S8EBCDIC1143

Finland - Sweden + Euro

WE8ISO8859P15

 

S8EBCDIC278

Finland - Sweden

WE8ISO8859P1

 

TH8TISEBCDIC

Thai IS 620-2533 EBCDIC 8-bit

TH8TISASCII

 

TR8EBCDIC1026

Turkey

WE8ISO8859P9

 

WE8EBCDIC1047

Latin 1

WE8ISO8859P1

 

WE8EBCDIC1140

USA, Canada + Euro

WE8ISO8859P15

 

WE8EBCDIC1145

Spanish + Euro

WE8ISO8859P15

 

WE8EBCDIC1146

UK + Euro

WE8ISO8859P15

 

WE8EBCDIC1148

International ECECP + Euro

WE8ISO8859P15

 

WE8EBCDIC1148

Western Europe + Euro

WE8ISO8859P15

 

WE8EBCDIC284

Spanish

WE8ISO8859P1

 

WE8EBCDIC285

UK

WE8ISO8859P1

 

WE8EBCDIC37

USA + Canada

WE8ISO8859P1

 

WE8EBCDIC37

Canadian French

WE8ISO8859P1

 

WE8EBCDIC500

Western Europe

WE8ISO8859P1

 

WE8EBCDIC871

Iceland

NE8ISO8859P10

 

WE8EBCDIC924

Latin 9

WE8ISO8859P9

 

ZHS16DBCS

Simplified Chinese

ZHS16CGB231280

Yes

ZHT16DBCS

Traditional Chinese

ZHT16BIG5

Yes