Optim™ uses the Unicode character set in dialogs and to process data.
Optim supports the following DBMS character sets:
| AL16UTF16 | JA16SJIS |
| AL32UTF8 | NEE8ISO8859P4 |
| AR8ISO8859P6 | N8PC865 |
| AR8MSWIN1256 | TR8MSWIN1254 |
| BLT8MSWIN1257 | US7ASCII |
| CDN8PC863 | US8PC437 |
| CL8ISO8859P5 | UTF8 |
| CL8MSWIN1251 | UTF16 |
| EE8ISO8859P2 | VN8MSWIN1258 |
| EE8MSWIN1250 | WE8DEC |
| EL8ISO8859P7 | WE8ISO8859P1 |
| EL8MSWIN1253 | WE8ISO8859P9 |
| IW8ISO8859P8 | WE8ISO8859P15 |
| IW8MSWIN1255 | WE8MSWIN1252 |
| WE8PC850 | WE8PC863 |
| WE8PC860 |
| cp437 | cp1257 |
| cp850 | iso_1 |
| cp1250 | iso_2 |
| cp1251 | iso_4 |
| cp1252 | iso_5 |
| cp1253 | iso_6 |
| cp1254 | iso_7 |
| cp1255 | iso_8 |
| cp1256 | iso_9 |
| roman8 | UTF16 |
| UTF8 |
| 437 | 865 |
| 850 | 1252 |
| 860 | UTF8 |
| 863 | UTF16 |
| 437 | 964 |
| 850 | 970 |
| 860 | 1252 |
| 863 | 1363 |
| 865 | 1370 |
| 936 | 1383 |
| 949 | 1386 |
| 950 | UTF8 |
| UTF16 |
| 1252 |
| UTF8 |
| UTF16 |
| 1252 |
| UTF8 |
The names of all directories and files referenced by, generated, or used with Optim must consist of ASCII characters. This requirement applies to the installation directories for Optim, as well as the Optim directories (for example, Temporary Work Directory, Data Directory, and other directories that are identified in Personal and Product Options or when configuring the Server).
All text files generated by Optim are in Unicode format and you can edit them with a Unicode-compatible text editor such as Microsoft NotePad. Optim recognizes Byte Order Mark headers in externally generated files and the following encodings:
Every locale (or its translation) that the Server is required to handle must reside on the Server machine. In other words, the Server must have access to the locale of the delegating workstation. A utility, pr0locl.exe, is provided to tell you the locales that are installed on a machine and the locales with which it is compatible. As an example of the output in a Windows environment, see the following:
Current operating system: Microsoft Windows XP
C runtime locales are:
LC_CTYPE = English_United States.1252
LC_COLLATE = English_United States.1252
LC_NUMERIC = English_United States.1252
LC_MONETARY = English_United States.1252
LC_TIME = English_United States.1252
Language Environment Variables:
LC_ALL =
LANG =
Windows Locale is:
LCID = 1033 (409)
Code Page = 1252 (4E4)
RT Server requests can run on or from a UNIX
system that has these locales or their derived locales installed
C
en_US.ISO8859-1
Optim supports storing data in single-byte (ASCII), Unicode, and multi-byte character sets. The default character set is single byte. When you create an Optim Directory or DB Alias using a database for which Optim supports Unicode or multi-byte characters, you are prompted to indicate the character format used for storing data. To use DB Aliases with different character sets, the Optim Directory must be in Unicode format. If you indicate that the DB Alias for the Optim Directory database should share connection information with the Optim Directory, the DB Alias must use the same character set as the Directory.
The Optim Directory and DB Aliases can be configured to support universal character encoding (Unicode), if character data in your Unicode-enabled database is kept in Unicode format.
Optim supports the Unicode character set for Oracle, Sybase ASE, Microsoft SQL Server, DB2® Linux, UNIX, Windows, Informix, and DB2 z/OS® databases.
If Optim processes data in a Unicode-enabled database, the Optim Directory must also be in a Unicode-enabled database and the Optim Directory and DB Aliases for Unicode-enabled databases must be flagged during the configuration process.
Unicode-enabled Oracle database servers commonly use UTF-8 but may use UTF-16. The Oracle client will typically use a single-byte character set.
To prevent any loss of data, the character set used by the database client must be compatible with the character set of the database server.
Optim enforces this requirement as follows.
For release 8i, the character set for the Oracle client is set in the NLS_LANG environment variable, for example:
Restart Optim and/or the Configuration program after making any changes to the character set.
For releases 9.0 and later, the character set for the Oracle client is set in the NLS_LANG environment variable, for example:
Restart Optim and/or the Configuration program after making any changes to the character set.
Because SQL Server does not differentiate based on Unicode characteristics, you need not indicate whether an SQL Server Optim Directory or DB Alias is kept in Unicode format. However, the following rules apply:
To prevent any loss of data, the character set used by the Sybase ASE database client must be compatible with the character set of the database server. Optim enforces this requirement as follows:
To prevent any loss of data, the character set used by the DB2 Linux, UNIX, Windows database client must be compatible with the character set of the database server. Optim enforces this requirement as follows:
To prevent any loss of data, the character set used by the DB2 z/OS database client must be compatible with the character set of the database server. Optim enforces this requirement as follows:
If a DB2 z/OS Tablespace includes both Unicode and non-Unicode tables, you must create a separate DB Alias for each table type, a Unicode DB Alias and a non-Unicode DB Alias.
During Load Processing, you can use only one connection, either Unicode or non-Unicode. You must exit Optim before switching between a Unicode or non-Unicode connection.
If the Load Process includes UTF-8 characters in table or column names, the Control File will be in UTF-8 format. Before transferring a UTF-8 Control File to a z/OS machine, the file must be converted to binary format. To browse a UTF-8 Control File on a z/OS machine, you must apply IBM® SPE APAR OA07685 - ISPF Browse Support for Unicode to the machine.
Unicode support is available for Informix®. If an Optim Directory is in an Informix Unicode database, all DB Aliases must be Unicode.
The Optim Directory and DB Aliases can be configured to support multi-byte character encoding, if character data in your database is kept in a multi-byte character format.
For information about supported multi-byte character sets, see the link for character set support in the Detailed System Requirements document for your release of Optim.
If Optim processes data in a multi-byte-enabled database, the Optim Directory must be in a multi-byte or Unicode-enabled database. The Optim Directory and DB Aliases for multi-byte-enabled databases must be flagged during the configuration process. An Optim Directory in multi-byte format supports multi-byte DB Aliases only.
Optim uses the Unicode character set in dialogs and to process information. In some multi-byte character sets (such as Oracle JA16SJIS), multiple characters are mapped to the same Unicode character. When these characters are converted from Unicode back to multi-byte (a round trip), the original character may not be returned. Optim provides a Product Option (on the Database tab) and a Personal Option (on the Database) that determine how to handle round-trip conversion issues when processing data in a multi-byte database.
To prevent any loss of data, the character set used by the database client must be compatible with the character set of the database server. Optim enforces this requirement as follows: