Policies for a single code page in a clan

When you use HCL Compass, each client that accesses your HCL Compass databases has its own code page. A code page specifies the set of characters that are valid in a given environment. With HCL Compass, a code page defines the set of characters that are manipulated correctly on a particular client. MultiSite requires that all clients use the same code page.

To enforce the use of a single code page and to ensure data integrity, a HCL Compass administrator must set the data code page value for a database set before activating it for replication. The code page of each database must also be set using the vendor database tools. In addition, if clients running versions of HCL Compass earlier than version 2003.06.00 access your databases, the CharacterSetValidation package must be applied to prevent users from entering data from multiple code pages into a database record.

If you need to change the type of data allowed in your HCL Compass MultiSite environment (for example, switching from Japanese to Chinese) you must follow a procedure that involves removing all replicas, scrubbing oplogs, changing the HCL Compass data code page, and re-creating your replicas.

For example, User1 is working on a client with the 1252 (European) code page and enters data into the SAMPL database, which also uses the 1252 code page. Down the hall, User2 is working on a client with the 932 (Japanese) code page and opens the record modified by User1. The data that User1 entered is translated so that it can be represented in User2’s client code page. Because the two code pages differ, the data that User2 sees is converted into characters that his client’s code page can understand (typically the "?" character). At this point the display is corrupted, but the data in the database remains valid.

If User2 enters more data into the record (using characters from the 932 code page) and commits it to the database, the record now permanently contains corrupted data that is no longer meaningful when read by any code page.

Solution

The patch also introduces a new "data code page" setting for a MultiSite database that prevents divergence on packet export.