ePortal represents all character strings in Unicode. When ePortal sends a field containing a character string to the OS 2200, ePortal converts the string from Unicode to an OS 2200 character set that you can configure. When ePortal receives a field containing a character string from the OS 2200, ePortal converts the string from the OS 2200 character set back to Unicode.

To configure the OS 2200 character set, refer to Viewing or Changing ePortal Application Configuration Properties.

Handling Multiple Character Encodings in a Single ePortal Message

Multi-byte or double-byte COBOL record definitions can contain data items that use different character encodings. The USAGE clause associated with a data item provides a hint as to which character encoding should be used to process the item.

The USAGE clause of DISPLAY is used for data items that contain multi-byte values. The configured OS 2200 character set described above is used to process this type of item. In addition, record definitions can contain a USAGE clause value of DISPLAY-2 to indicate the data item contains double-byte characters.

To handle data items that contain double-byte characters, ClearPath ePortal provides a mapping to a double-byte character encoding that is based on the configured OS 2200 character set. The following table shows that mapping.

Support for Dynamic Character Mapping

If you configure a multi-byte OS 2200 character set, you can optionally define a dynamic character map. Refer to Dynamic Character Mapping for more information.