e-business suite 1 _ jim pang _ the anatomy of multiple language support (mls) in oracle ebs.pdf

The most comprehensive Oracle applications & technology content under one roof The most comprehensive Oracle applications & technology content under one roof

The Anatomy of Mul0ple Language Support (MLS) in Oracle EBS

Jim Pang [email protected]

[email protected]

The most comprehensive Oracle applications & technology content under one roof

Agenda •  Mul9-‐Language Primer

–  Quiz –  Input/Character Mapping/Display –  Character sets –  Unicode / UTF8

•  Oracle EBS MLS –  Oracle Forms –  Oracle Reports

•  Project Planning •  Lessons Learnt •  Q&A


Mul9-‐Language Primer


Quiz How many bytes in the database are needed to hold the following characters ?

A in Western European character set À in Western European character set あ in typical Japanese character set A in Unicode À in Unicode あ in Unicode あ in UTF8


Answers

How many bytes in the database are needed to hold the following characters ?

A in Western European character set = 1 À in Western European character set = 1 あ in typical Japanese character set = 2 A in Unicode = 2 À in Unicode = 2 あ in Unicode = 2 あ in UTF8 = 3


Input -‐> Character Mapping -‐> Display (English)

User press and release ‘a’ key

Send ‘1E’ ‘9E’ scan codes

a Display ‘a’ on screen

English Locale lookup = 61 (single byte) Character lookup for display


User press and release ‘a’ key while in Japanese input mode

Send ‘1E’ ‘9E’ scan codes

Display ‘a’ on screen

Japanese Locale lookup = A4 A2 (double bytes) Character lookup for display

あ

Input -‐> Character Mapping -‐> Display (Japanese)


Evolu9on of Asian Character Sets

•  1978 : Japan invented JIS charset which include Japanese and Chinese

•  198x : China invented Chinese charset based on Japanese JIS •  198x : Korea does the same •  Since then, various deriva9ves of Japanese, Korean and

Chinese charsets emerges •  So as the rest of the world !!


Examples of interna9onal charsets


Unicode comes to the rescue

•  1992 : Unicode Consor9um was formed •  Unicode consolidates all exis9ng / common character sets in

the world !! •  Each character is represented by exactly two bytes


Example of Unicode Characters

Unicode for a = 00 61 (two bytes)

Unicode for あ = 30 42 (two bytes)


But, Unicode Is Not Good Enough

•  Majority of computer data is English or Number which used to be one byte per character

•  Unicode (two bytes per character) will substan9ally increase data storage ($$) and decrease speed ($$)

•  Unicode is only used for transient data during program execu9on


This 9me, UTF8 comes to the rescue

•  UTF8 is a transforma9on / encoding algorithm of Unicode •  UTF8 codes span from one to six bytes •  English and Numbers are encoded back to single byte data

(Problem solved !!)


Example of UTF8 Codes

Character a Unicode = 00 61 Octet = 0000 0000 0110 0001 UTF8 = 0110 0001 UTF8 = 61 (single byte) Character À Unicode = 00 E8 Octet = 0000 0000 1110 1000 UTF8 = 1100 0011 1010 1000 UTF8 = C3 A8 (two bytes)

Characterあ Unicode = 30 42 Octet = 0011 0000 0100 0010 UTF8 = 1110 0011 1000 0001 1000 0010 UTF8 = E3 81 82 (three bytes)


Oracle EBS MLS


Oracle Mul9-‐Language Support (NLS/MLS) Setup •  NLS_CHARACTERSET = AL32UTF8 (recommended by Oracle for R12) •  Env parameter NLS_LANG = American_America.UTF8 (DB 9er and

Applica9on 9er) •  Ac9vate selected languages using OAM License Manager •  Run adadmin to maintain MLS tables •  Run adpatch to Install EBS MLS (Mul9-‐Language Support) packs for

selected languages •  Client PC Windows language / character set can be tradi9onal or UTF8 •  Browser character set can be tradi9onal or UTF8 •  Character set transla9on can occur on PC, Browser, Java, Applica9on 9er,

Oracle u9li9es (sqlplus, sqlldr.;.)


Oracle NLS/MLS Transla9on

•  When two data nodes have mismatched character sekngs, Oracle components translate source data into target character set inten9onally (good !) or uninten9onally (data corrup9on !)


Oracle EBS Mul9-‐Language Capability •  Database NLS_CHARACTERSET = AL32UTF8 to support data store in any

language •  Enabled languages in EBS ac9vate MLS func9onality in transla9on

tables (xxx_TL) •  There are about 8,000+ xxx_TL tables •  MLS packs provide forms and reports boilerplates in selected languages •  OA Framework (html forms) does the transla9on •  XML (BI) Publisher has its own character transla9on capability with

language templates •  Profile op9ons

–  ICX: Language (Oracle Forms) –  ICX: Client IANA Encoding (HTML Forms) –  FND: Na9ve Client Encoding (Display reports output)


Example of Oracle EBS MLS enabled tables

fa_addi0ons_b asset_id asset_number asset_type tag_number asset_category_id

……..

fa_addi0ons_tl asset_id language source_lang descrip9on

……..


English Form can accept any character


Installed JA (Japanese) and ZHS (Simplified Chinese) MLS Packs

•  Form displays record where Language value = form language •  For any future update to asset descrip9on via English form, the form will con9nue to update all three rows because Source_Lang is US


Switch to Japanese Form

•  Switch to Japanese Forms by sekng profile op9on ICX: Language; •  Logout and login again to ac9vate;


Japanese Form

•  Boilerplate and seeded data in Japanese


Enter Japanese Data in Japanese Form

If the Asset descrip9on is updated via the Japanese Form, here is what is stored in the tables; SQL> select asset_id, language, source_lang, substr(descrip9on,1,20) from fa_addi9ons_tl where asset_id=5163883; ASSET_ID LANGUAGE SOURCE_LANG SUBSTR(DESCRIPTION,1,20) -‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐ -‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐ -‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐ 5163883 JA JA Asset 1 あえうEnglish d 5163883 US US Asset 1 English desc 5163883 ZHS US Asset 1 English desc

This row becomes only updatable in Japanese form because Source_Lang has been updated to JA


Use English Form to view Asset data

•  Switch to English form by sekng profile op9on •  Logout and login to reac9vate •  User is seeing the row which is Language = US


Run Reports

•  Regardless of what language you are in, you can run report in any language


Reports Output in Japanese


Use English form to input asset descrip9on in all languages

•  In English form, user can click the ‘Globe’ icon on the task bar, a window will pop up to allow user to enter MLS enabled fields in all languages


Project Planning •  Language requirement ?

–  Legal / Statutory –  Users

•  Data conversion –  Database Migra9on Assistant for Unicode (DMU) –  Data migra9on scripts for legacy systems

•  Capacity planning •  Overheads in MLS packs

–  Installa9on –  Tes9ng

•  Infrastructure and client desktops •  Prin9ng •  Supportability


Lessons Learnt

•  Hire qualified person in MLS •  Verify data using ‘dump’ commands •  Check your DR server, backup, restore, interfaces etc. •  Does data reviewer or approver speak the same language ? •  Engage mul9lingual users for centralised tes9ng •  Test all combina9ons of configura9ons


Q & A


Appendix •  Useful sql commands

–  Select * from V$NLS_VALID_VALUES order b parameter, value; –  Select * from V$NLS_PARAMETERS where parameter=‘NLS_CHARACTERSET’; –  Select dump(columnxx, 1016) from table;

•  Useful unix commands –  od –x <filename> –  iconv –f UTF-‐8 –t ISO-‐2022-‐JP source_file –  Sqlplus adncnv command –  NLS_LANG=American_America.UTF8;export NLS_LANG

•  Oracle support (metalink) –  Doc ID: Note:333785.1 -‐> Oracle Applica9on 11i Interna9onaliza9on Guide –  Interna9onaliza9on Update Notes for Release 12 [ID 393320.1] –  Patch ID 252422.1 –  NLS release notes [ID 788053.1] –  Globaliza9on Guide for Oracle Applica9ons Release 12 [ID 393861.1]

e-business suite 1 _ jim pang _ the anatomy of multiple language support (mls) in oracle ebs.pdf

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