1. Transports and Interfaces: Siebel Enterprise Application Integration
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10Transcode Service Business Service

Transcode Service Business Service

This chapter discusses the Transcode Service business service. It includes the following topics:

About the Transcode Service Business Service

The Transcode Service business service converts data from one character-set encoding to another. It can also validate conversions before they are performed.

The conversion implementation is portable, and does not rely on the operating system or any third-party products for codepage definitions. Supported error detection includes output-buffer overflow, memory-allocation failure, invalid data in the input encoding stream, and substitution in the output encoding stream.

Note: Windows fallback (that is, approximate) conversions are not supported.

The Transcode Service business service provides data conversion and validation of conversion between the following encodings:

  • ASCII

  • 874 (Thai)

  • 932 (Japanese)

  • 936 (Simplified Chinese)

  • 949 (Korean)

  • 950 (Traditional Chinese)

  • 1250

  • 1251

  • 1252 (Western European)

  • 1253

  • 1254

  • 1255

  • 1256

  • 1257

  • 1258

  • UTF-8

  • UTF-16LE

  • UTF-16BE

  • UTF-16

For a list of the languages supported by Siebel Business Applications, and the supported code pages for each database, see 1513102.1 (Article ID) on My Oracle Support. See also Siebel Global Deployment Guide and see the Certifications tab on My Oracle Support. For information about the Certifications application, see 1492194.1 (Article ID) on My Oracle Support.

Transcode Service Business Service Methods

The Transcode Service business service has two methods:

    Convert Method

    This method converts the value in the input property set to the target encoding in the output. You use this method when data enters or leaves Oracle’s Siebel Business Applications and conversion is required so that the next software component in the processing chain can recognize the data.

    The Convert method has the method arguments shown in the following table.

    Method Argument Required Description

    <Value>

    Yes

    Data to convert.

    ConversionMode

    Yes

    The mode can be StringToEncoding, EncodingToString, or EncodingToEncoding.

    SourceEncoding

    No

    Encoding from which data is converted. Required for the EncodingToString and EncodingToEncoding modes.

    TargetEncoding

    No

    Encoding to which data is converted. Required for the StringToEncoding and EncodingToEncoding modes.

    IgnoreConversionErrors

    No

    To ignore character conversion errors (invalid-character errors or substitution errors), set IgnoreConversionErrors to TRUE.

    Note: This argument is not shown in Siebel Tools.

      Validate Method

      To avoid problems associated with relying on third-party applications to convert data, you can use the Validate method of the Transcode Service business service. The Validate method confirms the input property set hierarchy or the value of the input property set. You can use this method to check that a character is valid within a particular character set before performing the conversion. You can choose not to send the data to the external application if validation fails.

      If validation fails, then the Transcode Service business returns a client-side error code (Error Code). The log file contains detailed information about what went wrong, including the failure type, first position in the input, and where conversion failed.

      The Validate method has the method arguments shown in the following table.

      Method Argument Required Description

      ValidationMode

      No

      Can be Value or left blank.

      If the mode is Value, then only <Value> is validated. Otherwise, the entire property set hierarchy is validated.

      SourceEncoding

      No

      Encoding from which data is converted.

      Required when ValidationMode is set to Value and the input value contains binary data. Conversion from binary data in SourceEncoding to binary data in TargetEncoding is implied.

      TargetEncoding

      Yes

      Encoding to which data is converted.

      <Value>

      No

      If <Value> is used (ValidationMode is set to Value), then only it is validated. Otherwise, the entire property set hierarchy is validated.

      SiebelMessage

      No

      If the validation is for a hierarchy of type Siebel Message, for example, the output of the EAI Siebel Adapter, then this argument refers to the property set.

      Note: This argument is not shown in Siebel Tools.

      XMLHierarchy

      No

      If the validation is for an XML hierarchy, for example, the output of the ReadXMLHier method of the EAI XML Read from File business service method, then this argument refers to the property set.

      Note: This argument is not shown in Siebel Tools.

        Transcode Service Business Service Examples

        The following examples show how to use the Validate and Convert methods of the Transcode Service business service:

          Using the Validate Method

          The following examples demonstrate the use of the Validate method of the Transcode Service business service:

            XML Hierarchy Example

            In this workflow example, a file encoded in codepage 932 (Japanese) is read into an XML hierarchy, then validated for conversion into codepage 1252 (Western European).

            To create the validation workflow (XML hierarchy example)
            1. Create a workflow containing the following steps, as shown in the following image:

              1. EAI XML Read from File

              2. Transcode Service (Validate)

              This image is described in the surrounding text.
              Note: For details on the Business Process Designer, see Siebel Business Process Framework: Workflow Guide.

            2. Define the following process properties:

              Name Data Type In/Out

              Error Code

              String

              In/Out

              Error Message

              String

              In/Out

              Siebel Operation Object Id

              String

              In/Out

              XMLHier

              Hierarchy

              In/Out

            3. Set up the first business service step to use the EAI XML Read from File business service with the ReadXMLHier method and the following input and output arguments:

              Input Argument Type Value

              FileName

              Literal

              c:\JPN_JIS.xml

              Property Name Type Output Argument

              XMLHier

              Output Argument

              XMLHierarchy

            4. Set up the second business service step to use the Transcode Service business service with the Validate method and the following input arguments:

              Input Argument Type Value Property Name

              SourceEncoding

              Literal

              CP932

              Not applicable

              TargetEncoding

              Literal

              CP1252

              Not applicable

              ValidationMode

              Literal

              Not applicable

              Not applicable

              XMLHierarchy

              Process Property

              Not applicable

              XMLHier

              Siebel Message Example

              In this workflow example, an account record is read from an integration object by the EAI Siebel Adapter as a Siebel Message, then validated for conversion from UTF-8 (Unicode) to codepage 1252 (Western European).

              To create the validation workflow (Siebel message example)

              1. Create a workflow containing the following steps, as shown in the following image:

                1. Query Siebel Msg

                2. Validate CP

                Transcode_Validate_SiebelMessage.png"
                Note: For details on the Business Process Designer, see Siebel Business Process Framework: Workflow Guide.

              2. Define the following process properties:

                Name Data Type In/Out

                Error Code

                String

                In/Out

                Error Message

                String

                In/Out

                Object Id

                String

                In/Out

                Process Instance Id

                String

                In/Out

                Siebel Operation Object Id

                String

                In/Out

                SiebelMsg

                Hierarchy

                In/Out

              3. Set up the first business service step to use the EAI Siebel Adapter business service with the Query method and the following input and output arguments:

                Input Argument Type Value Property Name

                OutputIntObjectName

                Literal

                Sample Account

                Not applicable

                PrimaryRowId

                Process Property

                Row ID of the account record

                Object Id

                Property Name Type Output Argument

                SiebelMsg

                Output Argument

                SiebelMessage

              4. Set up the second business service step to use the Transcode Service business service with the Validate method and the following input arguments:

                Input Argument Type Value Property Name

                SourceEncoding

                Literal

                UTF-8

                Not applicable

                TargetEncoding

                Literal

                CP1252

                Not applicable

                ValidationMode

                Literal

                Not applicable

                Not applicable

                SiebelMessage

                Process Property

                Not applicable

                SiebelMsg

                Using the Convert Method

                The following workflow example demonstrates the use of the Convert method of the Transcode Service business service. An account record is read from an integration object by the EAI Siebel Adapter as a Siebel Message, converted from UTF-8 (Unicode) to codepage 932 (Japanese), and then written to an XML file.

                To create the conversion workflow (using the Convert method)

                1. Create a workflow containing the following steps, as shown in the following image:

                  1. EAI Siebel Adapter (Query)

                  2. Transcode Service (Convert)

                  3. EAI XML Write to File (WriteEAIMs...)

                  Transcode_Convert.png"
                  Note: For details on the Business Process Designer, see Siebel Business Process Framework: Workflow Guide.

                2. Define the following process properties:

                  Name Data Type In/Out

                  Error Code

                  String

                  In/Out

                  Error Message

                  String

                  In/Out

                  Object Id

                  String

                  In/Out

                  Process Instance Id

                  String

                  In/Out

                  Siebel Operation Object Id

                  String

                  In/Out

                  SiebelMsg

                  Hierarchy

                  In/Out

                  SiebelMsgJPN

                  Hierarchy

                  In/Out
                3. Set up the first business service step to use the EAI Siebel Adapter business service with the Read Siebel Msg method and the following input and output arguments:

                  Input Argument Type Value Property Name

                  OutputIntObjectName

                  Literal

                  Sample Account

                  Not applicable

                  PrimaryRowId

                  Process Property

                  Row ID of the account record

                  Object Id

                  Property Name Type Output Argument

                  SiebelMsg

                  Output Argument

                  SiebelMessage

                4. Set up the second business service step to use the Transcode Service business service with the Convert method and the following input and output arguments:

                  Input Argument Type Value Property Name

                  SourceEncoding

                  Literal

                  UTF-8

                  Not applicable

                  TargetEncoding

                  Literal

                  CP932

                  Not applicable

                  ConversionMode

                  Literal

                  EncodingToEncoding

                  Not applicable

                  <Value>

                  Process Property

                  Not applicable

                  SiebelMsg

                  Property Name Type Output Argument

                  SiebelMsgJPN

                  Output Argument

                  <Value>

                5. Set up the third business service step to write the converted integration object hierarchy to an XML file using the EAI XML Write to File business service with the WriteEAIMsg method. This step requires the following input arguments:

                  Input Argument Type Value Property Name

                  FileName

                  Literal

                  File to write, for example, d:\temp\acct_record_JPN.xml

                  Not applicable

                  <Value>

                  Process Property

                  Not applicable

                  SiebelMsgJPN