UTF-8 (Unicode) support

UTF-8 is part of the Unicode standard, which enables you to encode text in practically any script and language. HPE Service Manager supports UTF-8 as the encoding method for new or existing data. It can support multiple languages that adhere to the Unicode standard on the same server.

Service Manager can also convert data to UTF-8 on-demand, thus eliminating system outages.

Prior to Unicode, languages were grouped into sets often referred to as Latin 1 (Western European language such as English, French, German), Latin 2 (Eastern European languages such as Czech, Polish, Slovak), Latin 5 (Turkish) and so on. Earlier HPE ServiceCenter versions supported multiple languages only within a language group. Therefore, a single server instance could support French and German, English and Turkish, English and Japanese, but not Turkish and Czech, or Polish and Japanese. The ability to display data in disparate languages from a single server is attractive to any Service Manager user with an international customer base.

Consider the following points to ensure successful Unicode support:

  • Start a Service Manager server with the language:utf8 parameter embedded in the sm.ini file or from the command line. This instructs the server to move data in UTF-8 format to external sources, such as exporting data to a text file. This is a transparent conversion of existing data on an as-needed basis.
  • Ensure that your RDBMS is correctly configured for UTF-8 support. For more information, see your local Database Administrator.