Understanding Alternate Character

PeopleSoft Customer Relationship Management (PeopleSoft CRM) provides alternate character functionality that supports the need in Japanese and Cantonese (Hong Kong) markets to represent proper nouns phonetically and in their native formats. This functionality enables PeopleSoft CRM to validate double-byte characters in alternate character fields.

To implement alternate character functionality, you must have installed a Japanese- or Cantonese-enabled database and a double-byte-enabled operating system. The alternate character architecture and the related language table architecture enable users to enter data using both single-byte and double-byte character sets and to switch between a base language table and a related language table to view information in either single-byte or double-byte characters.

For example, users who enter data in Japanese require functionality that enables them to enter proper nouns, such as names or addresses, both in kanji and by using a phonetic double-byte character set, such as hiragana. The alternate character architecture also supports phonetic sorting rather than binary sorting on proper nouns for languages that require the use of two-character sets to enter proper nouns.

In an alternate character-enabled system, alternate character fields appear in company and person names and addresses.

Labels for alternate character fields differ depending on the component and the field. For example, the Alt Char Name appears in the Company component for entry of the company name in alternate character format. The rules that the system used to determine if alternate character fields appear on pages vary depending on the type of alternate character information that you enter:

• Company name.

  In an alternate character-enabled system, the alternate character field for a company name always appears, whether or not it has a value. This does not depend on the country setting for the company.

• Person name.

  The alternate character field appears on a page only if the country format is Japan or Hong Kong. You cannot view the alternate character field if one of these countries is not selected.

  Pages that display personal name fields usually display them in first name, last name order. For Japanese and most Southeast Asian languages, however, personal name fields appear in the last name, first name order. A space, not a comma, separates the last and first names—the Name field displays the last name[space]first name, not last name,first name.

• Address (for both companies and persons).

  The alternate character fields appear on the Update Address, the Address Book Entry Details and the Quick Create pages. They do not appear on the Address Book list page or on the summary address information that appears on the primary page for a business object.

  See Understanding Name and Address Information in CRM.

After you establish alternate character information, you can use the alternate character fields as search criteria in the Business Object search component or the Configurable search.

See Understanding the Business Object Search and Quick Create Process.