The General tab displays information about the DBMS, including identifier case, character set values, delimiters, and separators, when appropriate.

The type and version of the database management system for the alias.
The default case for alphabetic characters that are used to identify database objects, such as the names of tables or views. This option is available only for database management systems for which you can specify object identifier case (for example, Sybase ASE and SQL Server).
The character set that a DBMS interface uses to communicate with a client. The Optim solution displays or writes data to a file using the code page on the Optim server. The DBMS interface uses a code page to pass data to Optim. In turn, Optim uses a code page to pass, insert, or update data through the DBMS interface. Code pages on the Optim server and the source database must match to prevent conversion errors.
In most cases, Optim identifies the code page and data that is received through the DBMS interface. As a result, any code page that is specified for the DB alias is ignored. However, in some instances, the code page is not recognized (as when you are using ODBC) and the DB alias code page is used.
To enter the code page for the alias, click the arrow to select from a list of valid character set values. Here are the supported code pages:
| Code Page | Character Set |
|---|---|
| 437 | US English |
| 850 | International Multilingual |
| 860 | Portuguese |
| 863 | Canadian, French |
| 865 | Nordic |
| 970 | Korean (EUC) |
| 1250 | Eastern European |
| 1251 | Cyrillic |
| 1252 | US/Western European ANSI or Latin 1 (ISO 8859-1) |
| 1253 | Greek |
| 1254 | Turkish |
| 1255 | Hebrew |
| 1256 | Arabic |
| 1257 | Baltic Rim |
Optim expects to use the following, depending on the DBMS:
| DBMS | Code page |
|---|---|
| DB2® | DB2CODEPAGE environment variable. If not found, the Windows code page is used. |
| Oracle | Oracle Character Set Name (as defined in the Oracle Windows Registry entries). If not found, the DB alias code page is used. |
| Sybase ASE | Sybase Locale Character Set Name (as defined to the Sybase ASE client). If not found, the DB alias code page is used. |
| SQL Server | Windows code page. |
| Informix® | Windows code page. |
The delimiter that is used to enclose DB2 strings that contain special characters or blanks, either single quotation marks (‘ _ ‘) or double quotation marks (“ _ ”).
The separator character that is used to designate the decimal point in numeric strings. If you do not specify a separator, a period is used. For Oracle, the value that is specified in the DBMS parameters is used. Select the character that is appropriate for the DBMS:
| Separator | Example |
|---|---|
| Comma ( , ) | 1,50 |
| Period ( . ) | 1.50 |
| Space ( _ ) | 1_50 |
Select this option if the Optim directory is hosted in the database indicated by the DB alias. The directory, created when Optim is installed, holds internal system tables and any objects you create by using Optim. Several databases can use the same directory. Access definitions and other objects that are stored in the directory can be shared.
Indicates whether the Optim solution is configured to require a password for the DB alias. You can change this setting with the Configuration program.
Indicates whether data is kept in Unicode format. If you are connected to an Optim™ directory in a DBMS for which Unicode is supported, Data is Kept in Unicode Format is displayed. You can change this setting with the Configuration program.
Indicates whether data is kept in multibyte format. If you are connected to a directory in a DBMS for which multibyte is supported, Data is Kept in Multi-byte Format is displayed. You can change this setting with the Configuration program.