Identifying NLS Issues

An NLS problem usually manifests itself in one way: an expected national character appears incorrectly (for example, as another national character, an outline box, or an unexpected symbol).

Additionally, an NLS problem is typically specific. For example, text may be garbled in only one feature of a product, or on a particular line in a particular window. It may require a certain sequence of steps to reliably reproduce the problem.

When identifying an NLS problem, keep in mind the following:

• Application components must be stored with a consistent encoding scheme (that is, with consistent ANSI code pages). For example, the format of a procedure and Master File must be the same as the format of the data sources on the WebFOCUS Reporting Server. In WebFOCUS architecture, it is possible to have two different encoding schemes: a client may have one encoding scheme and pass a procedure to a WebFOCUS Reporting Server for execution with a different encoding scheme.

  If the client and server are using different encoding schemes, national characters may not appear correctly or you may receive erroneous output from a report request.

• The problem may originate with any of the products that work together to support a WebFOCUS installation. Along with Information Builders products, the following may also exhibit NLS problems under certain circumstances:
  • Browsers
  • Web servers
  • Third-party data sources
  • Data communications infrastructure
  • Operating systems for specific computers (the locale may be set incorrectly, or otherwise misconfigured)
  • Computer terminals
  • Printers