When you access Oracle through the DataServer, the DataServer usually retrieves character data as determined by the code page (character set) that Oracle is using. The DataServer is linked with the Oracle Call Interface (OCI) and receives data from the OCI, thus the code page that the OCI uses determines the data's code page. See the Oracle documentation for more information.
The following figure shows a possible configuration of code pages for the DataServer components and processes.
Figure 7. DataServer processes and code pages
In some configurations, the instance might not be using the same code page as the OCI. In this case, conversion between the two code pages occurs when the Oracle RDBMS sends character data to the OCI.
For OpenEdge applications accessing the DataServer, the schema image identifies the code page of the character data. You must set the code page in the schema image to match the code page used by the OCI. Although the DataServer is linked to the OCI, it cannot automatically determine which code page it uses.
The code page name that you specify in the schema image must be the name by which OpenEdge recognizes the code page. For example, in this configuration, the OCI uses a code page named PC850. This is the same code page that OpenEdge recognizes as ibm850. You then specify ibm850 as the code page for the schema image. You must also specify a collation table that has been defined for the specified code page in the convmap file.
The default code page setting for the schema image is ISO8859-1. You can specify a different code page for the schema image:
When you create the DataServer schema image for the Oracle database.
At any time. However, because changing the code page does not affect the data already in the database, writing data to your database using a different code page can corrupt your database.
When you load a new schema image with a specified code page into an existing schema holder. In this case, the newly loaded schema's code page overrides the schema holder's original code page.
You cannot use the PROUTIL utility to change the database code page. If you are using one schema holder to hold the schema images of several databases, you can specify a different code page for each schema image.
Note: Do not load data definition (.df) files that contain character translation tables into the schema holder. Using a translation table that is different from the internal table can corrupt data in a database.
When you create the DataServer schema image for the Oracle database.
