Language and Globalization

There is a limitation when using Japanese character sets in SAP Replication Server. Neither the eucjis nor the sjis character set can be converted; this issue affects both SAP ASE and SAP Open Server and Open Client libraries.

Hankaku Katakana Conversion

In general, Japanese character sets are compatible. However, Hankaku Katakana characters, although they exist in both the eucjis and sjis character sets, cannot be converted. Converting data that contains Hankaku Katakana characters between eucjis and sjis does not work. This conversion problem occurs with character datatypes and the text datatype and is documented in Configuring Client/Server Character Set Conversions in the Adaptive Server Enterprise System Administration Guide Volume 1.

This conversion problem affects both SAP ASE and the SAP Open Server and Open Client libraries. Because SAP Replication Server uses these libraries for all conversions, this problem also affects it.

In SAP Replication Server, this type of failure is treated in the same way as is the case of a single character missing from the target character set. The remainder of the conversion succeeds and replication proceeds, and problem characters are replaced by question marks in the target data area. There is currently no way to escape this restriction with the SAP connectivity libraries. However, in SAP ASE, if you turn on trace flag number 2402, you can remove this restriction.

Using Trace Flag 2402

Generally, SAP recommends that you set up your replication system so that SAP Replication Server handles all character set conversions at the replicate SAP Replication Server and prevents the replicate data server from performing any conversions. In this case, you can work around the Hankaku Katakana restriction if you set up your system so that the replicate data server performs the conversion.

This table shows how this might look if the primary data server used the sjis character set and the replicate data server used eucjis. Communication in this system is between each data server and its SAP Replication Server and between the two SAP Replication Servers.

Primary SAP Replication Server	sjis
Replicate SAP Replication Server	sjis
Primary data server	sjis
Replicate data server	eucjis

The primary and replicate SAP Replication Servers are configured to use the same character set as the primary data server. (If only one SAP Replication Server manages the primary and replicate data servers, configure it with the character set of the primary data server.)

In this configuration, when the replicate SAP Replication Server connects to the replicate data server with character set sjis, the replicate data server detects this condition and converts data into its own character set, eucjis. If trace flag 2402 is activated in the replicate data server, then the conversion includes the Hankaku Katakana characters.

Setting Up Workaround

Configure your system as suggested.
Turn on trace flag 2402 in the replicate data server (SAP ASE) by including -T2402 on the command line when you start SAP ASE.

Changing Default Date Format for a Language

If you modify the common.loc file to change the default date format for a given language, make the corresponding change to the syslanguages table on all affected SAP ASEs.