Globalization Support in the Directory, 4 of 7

Using Globalization Support with LDIF Files

Attribute types are always ASCII strings that cannot contain multibyte characters. Oracle Internet Directory does not support multibyte characters in attribute type names. However, Oracle Internet Directory does support attribute values containing multibyte characters such as those in the simplified Chinese (.ZHS16GBK) character set.

Attribute values can be encoded in different ways to allow Oracle Internet Directory tools to interpret them properly. There are two scenarios:

An LDIF file Containing Only ASCII Strings

In this scenario, character strings for attribute values are also in ASCII.

Because all tools use the UTF-8 character set by default, and ASCII is a proper subset of UTF-8, all tools can interpret these files. The same is true of keyboard input of values that are simply ASCII strings.An LDIF file Containing UTF-8 Encoded Strings

An LDIF file Containing UTF-8 Encoded Strings

In this scenario, character strings for attribute values are also in UTF-8.

Because, by default, all tools use the UTF-8 character set (the Oracle character set name is AL32UTF8), all tools can interpret these files. The same is true of keyboard input of values which are UTF-8 strings.

In such a file, some characters may be multibyte. Multibyte characters strings can be present in the LDIF files as attribute values or given as keyboard input. They can be encoded in their native character set or in UTF-8. They can also be BASE64 encoded representations of either the native or the UTF-8 string.

Consider the following cases:

Because the directory server understands and expects only UTF-8 encoded strings, cases 1, 3, and 4 need to undergo conversion to UTF-8 strings before they can be sent to the LDAP server.

CASE 1: Native Strings (Non-UTF-8)

Use the -E argument in the command-line tools, ldifwrite, and bulkmodify. Use the -encode argument in the bulkload and bulkdelete tools.

This example converts simplified Chinese native strings to UTF-8. The baseDN can be a simplified Chinese string:

ldapsearch -h my_host -p 389 -E ".ZHS16GBK" -b base_DN  -s base  "objectclass=*"

CASE 2: UTF-8 Strings

No conversion is required.

CASE 3: BASE64 Encoded UTF-8 Strings

You need to use neither the -E argument in the command-line tools, ldifwrite, and bulkmodify, nor the -encode argument in bulkload and bulkdelete. Oracle Internet Directory tools automatically decode BASE64 encoded UTF-8 strings to UTF-8 strings.

CASE 4: BASE64 Encoded Native Strings

Use the -E argument in the command-line tools, ldifwrite, and bulkmodify. Use the -encode argument in the bulkload and bulkdelete tools.

Oracle Internet Directory tools automatically decode BASE64 encoded native strings to simple native strings. The native strings are then converted to the equivalent UTF-8 strings.

Note:
In any given input file, only one language set may be used.