How NLS API Works

The NLS API code page architecture is Information Builders proprietary implementation of the standard way of handling code page conversions used by all heterogeneous multi-tier systems. A server can have one server code page for reading data sources but can support multiple client code pages.

During the WebFOCUS configuration process, the administrator selects a code page for the WebFOCUS Reporting Server and WebFOCUS Client. For details on configuring components for NLS, see Configuring the WebFOCUS Reporting Server for NLS and Configuring a WebFOCUS Client for NLS.

During configuration, the server also generates a set of transcoding tables, which are resident in memory at run-time. As the number of different client code pages supported by the server increases, the number of tables defined by this transcoding service also increases. The Transcoding Services Generation Utility (TSGU) generates the code page transcoding tables.

The following diagram illustrates the transcoding process between client and server.