New and Updated Features › IBM i Unicode Support

IBM i Unicode Support

CA Plex has always supported EBCDIC (Extended Binary-Coded Decimal Interchange Code) for storage and transmission of character data on the IBM i operating environment. However, from V5R2, the IBM i5 OS now supports Unicode. The Unicode support provides simple deployment for CA Plex IBM i applications which must support multiple languages. In addition, the Unicode support allows those applications to work with a wider array of native language characters.

CA Plex supports the following client functions that connect to IBM i programs:

• WinC
• Java
• 5250 (Green Screen)
• .NET client

Java and .NET clients use Unicode. However, CA Plex WinC clients support ASCII only and 5250 supports EBCDIC only. If you implement complete Unicode client server application in CA Plex r7.0, we recommend that you select either Java or .NET for the client of that application.

The Unicode support in CA Plex r7.0 includes the following:

• Generate and build database schemas with a new Unicode data type.
• Unicode data type generation in the RPGIV generator.
• RPGIV PGM support for interoperation between Unicode and non Unicode (EBCDIC) data types.

For more information about the IBM i UNICODE support, see the UNICODE Support section in the online help.