INFOMRIX and multibyte scenarios

My company is looking at a new global mutibyte ERP soultion. I hope to use INFORMIX as I am very comfortable with it's stability and tools. One potential vendor is Infor. We have been told INFORMIX can not fully support multiple multibyte applications. Here is a part of their response: ----------------- Informix can be used in Infor ERP LN multibyte scenarios with 1 multibyte language + English. An example would be english + simplified Chinese. But Informix cannot be used in Unicode scenarios with ERP LN, that means several single/multibyte languages in one environment. An example for a Unicode-environment is the usage of english, german, polish, russian, simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese, japanese, korean in one ERP LN installation. Therefore Oracle, SQL Server or DB2 are needed. ---------------- Does the group agree that this is something that INFORMIX can not do out of the box, but these other DB solutions can? Is it likely to change in next 6 months? Is there an easy work around? Thanks

Dear Bill, Informix has supported multi-byte locales as early as 9.40 (possibly earlier). Multi-byte support includes UTF-8, and is integrated into the Informix Global Language Support (GLS) feature. In addition to supporting characters in all languages including Simplified Chinese, collation and codeset conversion are supported out of the box on all editions. The IBM Informix 11.70 Information Center has a wealth of information on the facilities provided by Informix GLS. The GLS user's guide can be found at http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/idshelp/v117/topic/com.ibm.glsug.doc/gl sug.htm Here is a quick way create a database that supports data in multiple languages, using DB-Access and IDS 11.50 and later: 1) Start your Informix server. 2) Set the following environment variables: DB_LOCALE=en_US.utf8 CLIENT_LOCALE=en_US.utf8 3) Launch dbaccess and create a database. The DB_LOCALE setting instructs the server to set this database up with the UTF-8 encoding, with U.S. English default end-user formatting. > create database myutf8db; 4) Create tables and insert data as you normally would. You can also load UTF-8 encoded data into any character type columns using JDBC, ODBC, or the LOAD statement through DB-Access. Even though the end-user formatting defaults to en_US, you can still insert character data containing Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or European characters. Recommended Reading: For UTF-8 databases, you may also be interested in the GL_USEGLU environment variable, described at http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/idshelp/v117/topic/com.ibm.glsug.doc/id s_gug_090.htm and http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/idshelp/v117/topic/com.ibm.igul.doc/ids _in_022x.htm I hope this clarifies any doubts you might have had about multi-byte support in Informix. Best of luck! Regards, Paul-John "PJ" To

Thanks On Dec 22, 2010, at 10:47 PM, PAUL-JOHN TO wrote: > Dear Bill, > > Informix has supported multi-byte locales as early as 9.40 (possibly earlier). > Multi-byte support includes UTF-8, and is integrated into the Informix Global > Language Support (GLS) feature. In addition to supporting characters in all > languages including Simplified Chinese, collation and codeset conversion are > supported out of the box on all editions. > > The IBM Informix 11.70 Information Center has a wealth of information on the > facilities provided by Informix GLS. The GLS user's guide can be found at > > http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/idshelp/v117/topic/com.ibm.glsug.doc/gl sug.htm > > Here is a quick way create a database that supports data in multiple > languages, using DB-Access and IDS 11.50 and later: > > 1) Start your Informix server. > 2) Set the following environment variables: > > DB_LOCALE=en_US.utf8 > > CLIENT_LOCALE=en_US.utf8> > 3) Launch dbaccess and create a database. The DB_LOCALE setting instructs the > server to set this database up with the UTF-8 encoding, with U.S. English > default end-user formatting. > >> create database myutf8db;> > 4) Create tables and insert data as you normally would. You can also load > UTF-8 encoded data into any character type columns using JDBC, ODBC, or the > LOAD statement through DB-Access. > > Even though the end-user formatting defaults to en_US, you can still insert > character data containing Chinese, Japanese, Korean, or European characters. > > Recommended Reading: > > For UTF-8 databases, you may also be interested in the GL_USEGLU environment > variable, described at > > http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/idshelp/v117/topic/com.ibm.glsug.doc/id s_gug_090.htm > > and > > > http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/idshelp/v117/topic/com.ibm.igul.doc/ids _in_022x.htm > > I hope this clarifies any doubts you might have had about multi-byte support > in Informix. Best of luck! > > Regards, > Paul-John "PJ" To > > > ******************************************************************************* > Forum Note: Use "Reply" to post a response in the discussion forum. >