Selecting and Managing Client Workstation Character Sets

You must consider the client components of PeopleTools when you are planning your language strategy. The requirements for language support on client workstations are different, depending on whether you are using the PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture or the PeopleTools development tools for Microsoft Windows.

This section discusses:

  • Character sets and fonts in the PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture.

  • Fonts and the PeopleTools development environment.

  • Input methods.

Character Sets and Fonts in the PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture

The PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture serves all HTML pages in the UTF-8 encoding of Unicode. This encoding is recognized automatically by the web browser, because the encoding of the page is announced in the HTTP header when the browser communicates with the web server. All browsers supported by PeopleTools can support UTF-8 encoded HTML pages.

However, the browser needs other components to correctly display and enter the vast array of characters that are available in Unicode. Specifically, you need appropriate fonts to display the various scripts in which you expect data to be maintained. In addition, you might need alternate keyboard layouts or, in the case of ideographic scripts such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, you need input method editors (IMEs) to convert sequences of keystrokes into ideographs. The requirement for alternate keyboard and IMEs is the same for both the PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture and the PeopleTools development environment.

Not all fonts contain a full repertoire of Unicode characters, because many fonts are tailored to address a specific list of languages and contain only the glyphs that are required by those languages. If you try to view Unicode data with a font that does not contain the appropriate characters for the displayed language, you will most likely see square boxes in place of the appropriate characters. The data has not been corrupted; there is just no glyph available in the current font for the character that the system is trying to display. For this reason, you may need to license or configure several fonts for a global PeopleSoft system.

The PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture includes a set of style sheets, defined with Application Designer, that determine the font that is used to display HTML pages. In some cases, the application data may contain characters that are not present in this font and that require a different font.

The Go Noto TrueType fonts shipped in the PS_HOME\fonts\truetype directory support all of the languages supported by the PeopleSoft system. Alternatively, you may need to obtain and configure fonts that contain the characters for the languages that you are planning to use, if your workstations are not already configured with these fonts. Obtain fonts from the following sources:

  • Many Microsoft Windows and other operating system applications are packaged with Unicode fonts containing glyphs covering a large range of languages.

    Microsoft Office is packaged with several fonts containing a large portion of the characters in Unicode, including the Microsoft Sans Serif font. Use these fonts in the PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture by specifying them in the Application Designer style sheet definitions or by following the browser-specific instructions in this section.

  • Many public domain fonts exist that contain a large character repertoire for use in web browsers. The unifont.org web site is one location to get additional information on public domain fonts.

    See Unicode Font Guide For Free/Libre Open Source Operating Systems.

  • Several font foundries license fonts for individual or corporate use.

    Some of these foundries include Monotype, Bitstream, and Tiro Typeworks.

Depending on your browser, you can also download fonts from your browser’s manufacturer.

To enable the display of GB18030 characters, you can use either the SimSun-18030 font from Microsoft or the Go Noto fonts shipped in the PS_HOME\fonts directory. Both of these fonts have glyphs for the supported ranges of the GB18030 character set.

Fonts and the PeopleTools Development Environment

PeopleTools enables you to specify the font that is used for all graphical components for all PeopleTools modules that run on Windows, such as Application Designer. Use these methods to specify fonts:

  • Configuration Manager font setting (Display tab)

    This setting affects the font that is used by all of the designer components of PeopleTools, including all of the text that is contained in the Microsoft Windows resource files

    See Understanding PeopleTools Translation.

    Changing this font setting may be necessary if your workstation’s default locale does not contain the characters that are used for the language that you are attempting to display or maintain. For example, if you are attempting to view Japanese characters on an English Microsoft Windows workstation, you can change the PeopleSoft Configuration Manager font setting to select a font that contains the characters for the language that you are trying to display.

    The Go Noto TrueType fonts shipped in PS_HOME\fonts directory support all of the languages supported by the PeopleSoft system.

    In addition, several fonts that are shipped with Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office, including Arial Unicode MS and Microsoft Sans Serif, contain a large number of glyphs covering most of the languages that are supported by the Unicode character set. Microsoft Windows can also be configured with fonts for most worldwide languages by selecting the required languages under the Regional Settings Control Panel menu.

  • PeopleCode font

    The PeopleCode editor in Application Designer also enables you to select a font for character display in the editor’s window itself. This is useful if the PeopleCode programs that you are working on contain Unicode characters. To set the font in Application Designer, open the PeopleCode program, select Edit, Display Fonts and Color.

Fonts in PeopleSoft Charts and PDF Documents

The operating system on the client workstation provides the fonts for the browser to render text in Peoplesoft Pure Internet Architecture pages. In certain circumstances, the application server provides the fonts when text is rendered on the server. For example, for PeopleSoft charts sent as rendered images and for PDF documents produced by reporting tools such as SQR, or BI Publisher, the application server might need to be configured with fonts that contain the needed glyphs. If the font is not configured correctly, squares or blanks might appear in PeopleSoft charts or PDF documents when the same characters are rendering correctly in the browser.

Note:

The most common case in which fonts are rendered on the application server is when Java is used to draw charts or reports. The fonts shipped by PeopleSoft can be found in PS_HOME\fonts\ttf, as well as in PS_HOME\jre\lib\fonts.

See BI Publisher for PeopleSoft: Understanding Report Template Types.

Input Methods

If users will enter translated data by using PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture or the PeopleTools development environment, you must ensure that an appropriate keyboard layout or input method editor is installed on the workstation.

Most alphabetic languages can be typed by using a relatively simple keyboard layout. Several specialized keyboard layouts exist for most languages; configure these keyboard layouts through your operating system. For example, a Spanish keyboard layout contains keys for the n-tilde character (ñ) and several other accented characters.

However, certain PeopleSoft hot keys do not work as expected on alternate, non-U.S. keyboard layouts. For example, Alt+', Alt+\, and Alt+/ do not produce the expected results on the AZERTY keyboard. This occurs because some keys on non-U.S. keyboards produce different key codes than the same key on a U.S. keyboard (also known as a QWERTY keyboard).

A solution to this problem can be found in the appendix.

See PeopleSoft Hot Keys Do Not Function As Expected on a non-U.S. Keyboard.

There are several ways of entering these characters by using a nonlocalized keyboard. Your operating system manual can help you use specialized keyboard layouts, such as the English international layout, which enables you to enter accented characters by using two keystrokes. The Microsoft web site contains information about keyboards that are supported by Microsoft Windows and instructions for installing and configuring Windows keyboard layouts.

Ideographic languages, such as Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, require the use of a front-end processor to intercept multiple keyboard strokes and transform them into an ideographic character. These are known as IMEs, and they must be installed on each workstation where you plan to enter the ideographic languages.

Most localized versions of operating systems for these languages come preconfigured with IMEs that are appropriate for the language that is supported by the operating system. But on systems where the default locale is not Chinese, Japanese, or Korean, you may need to configure or license an IME from a third-party vendor. The PeopleSoft Pure Internet Architecture supports any IME that is supported by your browser. The designer tools in Microsoft Windows support all standard Microsoft IMEs.