IBM BPM, V8.0.1, All platforms > Authoring services in Integration Designer > Services and service-related functions > Access external services with adapters > Configure and using adapters > IBM WebSphere Adapters > Oracle E-Business Suite > Reference > Globalization

Globalization and bidirectional transformation

The adapter is globalized to support single and multibyte character sets and deliver message text in the specified language. The adapter also performs bidirectional transformation, which refers to the task of processing data that contains both right-to-left (Hebrew or Arabic, for example) and left-to-right (a URL or file path, for example) semantic content within the same file.


Globalization

Globalized software applications are designed and developed for use within multiple linguistic and cultural environments rather than a single environment. WebSphere Adapters, IBM Integration Designer, IBM BPM or WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus are written in Java™. The Java run time environment within the Java virtual machine (JVM) represents data in the Unicode character code set. Unicode contains encoding for characters in most known character code sets (both single- and multi-byte). Therefore, when data is transferred between these integration system components, there is no need for character conversion.

To log error and informational messages in the appropriate language and for the appropriate country or region, the adapter uses the locale of the system on which it is running.


Bidirectional transformation

Languages such as Arabic and Hebrew are written from right to left, yet they contain embedded segments of text that are written left to right, resulting in bidirectional script. There are multiple ways that a software application might display and process bidirectional script. IBM BPM or WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus uses the Windows standard format, but an enterprise information system exchanging data with IBM BPM or WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus can use a different format. WebSphere Adapters transform bidirectional script data is passed between the two systems so that it is accurately processed and displayed on both sides of a transaction.


Bidirectional format

IBM BPM or WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus uses the bidirectional format of ILYNN (implicit, left-to-right, on, off, nominal). This is the format used by Windows.

If an enterprise information system uses a different format, the adapter converts the format before introducing the data to IBM BPM or WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus.

The bidirectional format consists of five attributes. When you set bidirectional properties, you assign values for each of these attributes. The attributes and settings are listed in the following table.

Bidirectional format attributes
Letter position Purpose Values Description Default setting
1 Order schema I Implicit (Logical) I
V Visual
2 Direction L Left-to-Right L
R Right-to-Left
C Contextual Left-to-Right
D Contextual Right-to-Left
3 Symmetric Swapping Y Symmetric swapping is on Y
N Symmetric swapping is off
4 Text Shaping S Text is shaped N
N Text is not shaped (Nominal)
I Initial shaping
M Middle shaping
F Final shaping
B Isolated shaping
5 Numeric Shaping H National (Hindi) N
C Contextual shaping
N Numbers are not shaped (Nominal)

The adapter transforms data into a logical, left-to-right format before sending the data to IBM BPM or WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus.


Use bidirectional properties

You can use multiple bidirectional properties to control the transformation of both content data and metadata. You can set special bidirectional properties to exclude either content data or metadata from bidirectional transformation, or to identify data that requires special treatment during a transformation.

The following table describes the types of bidirectional properties.

Bidirectional property types
Property type Data transformations
EIS Controls the format for content data, or data that is sent by the enterprise information system, which is, the database.
Metadata Controls the format for metadata, or data that provides information about the content data.
Skip Identifies content or metadata to exclude from transformation.
Special Format Identifies certain text, such as file paths or URLs, which require different treatment during the transformation process. Can be set for either content data or metadata.

You can set properties that control bidirectional transformation in the following areas:


Property scope and lookup mechanism

After you set values for bidirectional properties for an adapter, the adapter performs bidirectional transformations. It does so by using logic that relies on a hierarchical inheritance of property settings and a lookup mechanism.

Properties defined within the resource adapter are at the top of the hierarchy, while those defined within other areas or annotated within a business object are at lower levels of the hierarchy. So for example, if you set values for EIS-type bidirectional properties only for the resource adapter, those values are inherited and used by transformations that require a defined EIS-type bidirectional property, whether they arise from an inbound (activation specification) transaction or an outbound (managed connection factory) transaction.

However, if you set values for EIS-type bidirectional properties for both the resource adapter and the activation specification, a transformation arising from an inbound transaction uses the values set for the activation specification.

The processing logic uses a lookup mechanism to search for bidirectional property values to use during a transformation. The lookup mechanism begins its search at the level where the transformation arises and searches upward through the hierarchy for defined values of the appropriate property type. It uses the first valid value it finds. It searches the hierarchy from child to parent only; siblings are not considered in the search.

Globalization


Related reference:

Properties enabled for bidirectional data transformation