Special Characters

[pool]

Hi All

We are running Progress Character & would like to know if it is possible to insert special characters while capturing data e.g. âő ?

Regards
M

 

[RealHeavyDude]

That depends on several things.

In the first place, you do not mention your Progress/OpenEdge version. Support for some code pages has not been there forever.

Basically the code page you start your client with must support the characters you want to input. The database code page must support the characters too - if you use different code pages. If that's the case you should be fine - except if you use a terminal emulation. This must support the characters too.

Heavy Regards, RealHeavyDude.

 

[pool]

Hi

Thank you for the speedy response.

We are running 10.1C....and really what I would like to know is, how would a user capture these special characters in an input field?

I am not sure of the code page ...

Regards
M

 

[RealHeavyDude]

Welcome to the world of internationalization.

You face several issues here:

• Code pages - you must know which code page(s) you use ( database and client if they are different ) in the first place. If you don't there is no way to have a glue. Out of experience I can tell that they are mostly the same. You need to have a look into the parameter file with which you start the client and search of -cp* settings. If you don't find some there they will be taken out from the startup.pf file which is located in the installation directory and which is customized during the installation to reflect your input.
• Terminal emulators: This is a white spot in my knowledge, only I know that terminal emulators also have something like character sets they can handle.
• Input devices: The input device must support the characters you want to generate.

Heavy Regards, RealHeavyDude.

 

[pool]

Hi RealHeavyDude

We are :

1) Using code pages
-cpinternal ISO8859-1
-cpstream ISO8859-1
-cpcoll Basic
-cpcase Basic

2) Terminal Emulator - NetTerm 4.2.d.2
3) Input Device ?

Regards
The PoolMan

 

[RealHeavyDude]

As far as I have seen both of the characters you are asking for are not part of iso8859-1. That means that Progress can't handle them correctly unless you change the code page setting to one that contains these characters. Full stop.


Heavy Regards, RealHeavyDude.

 

[pool]

Hi RealHeavyDude

Those 2 characters were just examples.....For me the real issue is, how would users capture these special characters in an input Text field ?

Thanks
M

 

[RealHeavyDude]

The would type it in ( on the keyboard ).

If the keyboard does not support the characters the users would - as you are neither revealing the Progress/OpenEdge version nor the OS that the clients are using I just need to speculate - pick one of the following options:

• Copy/paste it from a character map ( for example in Windows under accessories/system programs)
• Copy/paste it from somewhere else ...
• On Windows type the ASCII code ( holding down the ALT key and typing the ASCII code on the numbers block )
• Will them into the system ( just kidding ) ...

Heavy Regards, RealHeavyDude.

 

[pool]

Hi RealHeavyDude

Thanks for the help.....but it does not seem to work in my tramlines test....tried the copy/paste option.

Maybe is should ask them to Will it into the system...lol

Regards
M

 

[RealHeavyDude]

Your terminal emulator ( I suppose it runs on Windoze ) should have a copy/paste menu which allows it to paste values from the Windoze clipboard into the character application's input fields ...

But, as I already said, terminal emulators are a blank spot in my knowledge ...


Heavy Regards, RealHeavyDude.

 

[tamhas]

I suggest that you visit http://www.i18nguy.com/ and explore code pages for the characters of interest. As RHD indicates, you need to pick a code page for the database and session that contain the characters you want to reference. If this is a fairly limited set based around a local language, then there should be a code page which will work and it is simply a question of making the conversions and getting all the settings correct. If it is a diverse set, then you may have to go with a flavor Unicode. But, Tex will provide all the education you need into the concepts ....

 

[tamhas]

Recognize that when you cut and paste, all you are really doing ins sending a code value to the input stream. So, if you copy what shows up as a â what is really going to the code is the value E2 in the 8859-1 code page (see http://www.i18nguy.com/unicode/codepages.html ) and what will get stored in the database if everything is 8859-1 is that code. But, if you then display that value on a device with a different code page, you may see a different character or if you display it on a 7 bit device, then the top bit in the E will be stripped, leaving you with 62 or "b". Likewise, if your terminal emulator is set to 7 bit, the program and database will only ever see the 62.