6 Configuring Oracle Application Server for Global Deployment

6.1 Installing Oracle Application Server for Global Deployment

In addition to the schemas of the infrastructure components, such as Oracle Internet Directory and Distributed Configuration Management (DCM), the Oracle Application Server Infrastructure database stores data pertaining to many Oracle Application Server middle-tier components that are installed on top of it. These components include the following:

• Oracle Application Server Portal (OracleAS Portal)

• Oracle Application Server Forms Services (OracleAS Forms Services)

• Oracle Reports (OracleAS Reports Services)

• Oracle Application Server Wireless (OracleAS Wireless)

• Oracle Business Intelligence Discoverer (OracleBI Discoverer)

It is important to choose the correct database character set for the infrastructure database at installation time so all the dependent components are able to provide the same level of global support.

During the installation of the Oracle Application Server infrastructure database, you are prompted to choose the database character set you would like to use for the database. The default character set is AL32UTF8. There are two basic scenarios that will determine which choice is best for your environment:

• If your environment is intended to support multiple languages in a single global instance of the Oracle Application Server infrastructure, similar to Figure 1-2, then choose UTF-8 as the character set for the infrastructure database. Even if you only support a single language, such as English, you may choose UTF-8 as the database character set. The implications of choosing UTF-8 include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Databases with UTF-8 as the database character set are slightly slower than those with single-byte character sets. The performance impact is due to UTF-8 being a multibyte character set and the increase in the number of character set conversions between the middle tier and the database.

  • Web pages served through mod_plsql must be encoded in UTF-8. However, there are some browsers, such as those for mobile devices, that may have problems supporting UTF-8. Products that deliver Web pages through mod_plsql include Oracle Application Server Single Sign-On and Oracle Application Server Portal.

• If your environment is intended to support a single language or a group of languages that share the same native character set, then you can choose the character set that is most commonly used for these languages as an alternative to UTF-8. For example, you can choose WE8MSWIN1252 if you are only interested in supporting Western European languages. You can choose JA16SJIS if you are interested in supporting Japanese and English.

  • If your environment will support Traditional Chinese, then select ZHT16MSWIN950 or ZHT16BIG5 as the character set.

    
    

    Note: The character set ZHT32EUC does not support Oracle Application Server Portal.

    
    

During installation of any Oracle Application Server installation type, support for user-selected languages is automatically installed and configured. It includes the translation files and fonts being used in the product.

If the required fonts are not available after installation, then you can copy them from the Utilities CD-ROM included in the Oracle Application Server CD pack, or from

http://metalink.oracle.com

into the $ORACLE_HOME/jdk/jre/lib/fonts directory.

6.2 Configuring Oracle HTTP Server and OC4J for Global Deployment

This section contains the following topics related to configuring Oracle HTTP Server for multilingual support:

• About Manually Editing HTTP Server and OC4J Configuration Files

• Configuring the NLS_LANG Parameter

• Configuring Transfer Mode for mod_plsql Runtime

• Configuring the Runtime Default Locale

ORACLE_HOME/dcm/bin/dcmctl saveInstance -dir directory_name

ORACLE_HOME/dcm/bin/dcmctl restoreInstance -dir directory_name

language_territory.characterset

NLS_LANG=${NLS_LANG=language_territory.characterset}; export NLS_LANG

NLS_LANG=language_territory.characterset; export NLS_LANG

JAPANESE_JAPAN.JA16SJIS

NLS_LANG=AMERICAN_AMERICA.UTF8

<Location /pls/scott>
        SetHandler pls_handler
        Order deny,allow
        Allow from all
        PlsqlDatabasePassword          tiger
        PlsqlDatabaseUsername          scott
        PlsqlDatabaseConnectString     local
        PlsqlDocumentPath              docs
        PlsqlNlsLanguage               AMERICAN_AMERICA.UTF8
        PlsqlTransferMode              RAW
</Location>

PlsqlNlsLanguage "SIMPLIFIED CHINESE_CHINA.ZHS16GBK"

wrapper.env=LANG=ja_JP

<environment>
...
<prop name="LANG" value="ja_JP" />
...
</environment>

    PassEnv LC_ALL

    LC_ALL=${LC_ALL=OS_locale}; export LC_ALL

6.3 Configuring Oracle Application Server Portal for Global Deployment

Oracle Application Server Portal (OracleAS Portal) is designed to allow application development and deployment in different languages. OracleAS Portal is configured with the languages that are selected in the Oracle Universal Installer during the Oracle Application Server middle-tier installation. The selected languages that are configured show up in the Set Language portlet.

To configure additional languages after installation, use the ptllang script. Once you have installed a language, OracleAS Portal allows you to specify the preferred locale and territory to be used for that language; for example, Australian English or Canadian French.

6.4 Configuring Oracle Application Server Wireless for Global Deployment

When users access wireless services from their mobile devices, Oracle Application Server Wireless uses the user profile information from Oracle Internet Directory to determine the user's preferred language. Administrators can select the language when creating a new user through the Oracle Application Server Wireless Tools. Users can change their preferred language through the Wireless Customization Tool.

6.5 Configuring Oracle Application Server Forms Services for Global Deployment

The NLS_LANG parameter controls the language, territory, and character set that an Internet application uses for database connections. Specify the value of NLS_LANG in the following format, including the punctuation as shown:

language_territory.characterset

language, territory, and characterset must be valid Oracle language, territory, and character set names. The specified language and territory are used to initialize the locale that determines the default date and time formats, number formats, and sorting sequence in a database session. Oracle Net converts data to and from the specified character set when it retrieves data from or inserts data into the database.

You can set the NLS_LANG parameter in the $ORACLE_HOME/forms/server/default.env file. If you do not set the NLS_LANG parameter in the default.env file, then OracleAS Forms Services uses the value set as follows:

• On UNIX: The NLS_LANG shell environment variable when OracleAS Forms Services is invoked

• On Microsoft Windows: The NLS_LANG setting at the \\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE\FormsServerOracle_HOME in the Microsoft Windows registry

You can have different NLS_LANG settings on the same Forms Server by specifying an alternate environment file. Use the envFile parameter in the formsweb.cfg file. To do this:

1. Create two environment configuration files under $ORACLE_HOME/forms/server. For example, an American environment configuration file (en-us.env) should contain the following lines:

       NLS_LANG=AMERICAN_AMERICA.US7ASCII
       FORMS_PATH=d:\us
   
   

   A Japanese environment configuration file (ja.env) should contain the following lines:

       NLS_LANG=JAPANESE_JAPAN.JA16SJIS
       FORMS_PATH=d:\ja
   
   

2. In the $ORACLE_HOME/forms/server/formsweb.cfg file, set the envFile parameter for the alternative setting. For example:

       [ja]
       envFile=ja.env
   
       [en-us]
       envFile=en-us.env
   
   

3. Specify the configuration name in the URL for your forms servlet as follows:

       http://formsservermachine/forms/frmservlet?config=ja
       http://formsservermachine/forms/frmservlet?config=en
   

6.6 Configuring OracleAS Reports Services for Global Deployment

The NLS_LANG parameter controls the language, territory, and character set used for database connections in an OracleAS Reports Services application. Specify the value of NLS_LANG in the following format, including the punctuation as shown:

language_territory.characterset

language, territory, and characterset must be valid Oracle language, territory, and character set names. The specified language and territory are used to initialize the locale that determines the default date and time formats, number formats, and sorting sequence in a database session. Oracle Net converts data to and from the specified character set when it retrieves data from or inserts data into the database.

OracleAS Reports Services uses the value of the NLS_LANG parameter set as follows:

• On UNIX: The NLS_LANG shell environment variable when OracleAS Reports Services is invoked. The default NLS_LANG value is set in $ORACLE_HOME/bin/reports.sh.

• On Microsoft Windows: The value of NLS_LANG set at \\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE\%ReportsORACLE_HOME% in the Microsoft Windows registry

• For dynamic environment switching: In the OracleAS Reports Services configuration file through the environment element. On UNIX, the default NLS_LANG value in the reports.sh file needs to be commented out to enable this feature.

6.7 Configuring Oracle Business Intelligence Discoverer for Global Deployment

OracleBI Discoverer can simultaneously support users with different locales. Users may explicitly control the locale used for the user interface, or they may allow OracleBI Discoverer to automatically determine a default. The order of precedence for determining the language and locale is:

1. Language and locale settings specified in the URL for OracleBI Discoverer.

2. Language and locale settings specified in the OracleBI Discoverer Connection. If the Locale set in user's browser option is specified, then the language settings in the each user's browser is used.

3. Language and locale of Oracle Application Server.

6.8 Configuring a Centralized Unicode-enabled Database to Support Global Deployment

You can set up the centralized Oracle database to store Unicode data in the following ways:

• As UTF-8 in the SQL CHAR data types (CHAR, VARCHAR2, and CLOB)

• As UTF-16 in the SQL NCHAR data types (NCHAR, NVARCHAR2, and NCLOB)

It is good practice to specify the centralized Oracle database to support the following data types:

• Specify AL32UTF8 for the database character set when you create the centralized database for UTF-8 in the SQL CHAR data types

• Specify AL16UTF16 for the national character set when you create the centralized database for UTF-16 in the SQL NCHAR data types

Example 6-1 shows part of a CREATE DATABASE statement that sets the recommended database character set and national character set.

CREATE DATABASE utfdb
    CONTROL FILE REUSE
    LOGFILE '/u01/oracle/utfdb/redo01.log' SIZE 1M REUSE
    '/u01/oracle/utfdb/redo02.log' SIZE 1M REUSE
    DATAFILE '/u01/oracle/utfdb/system01.dbf' SIZE 10M REUSE
    AUTOEXTENT ON
    NEXT 10M MAXSIZE 200M
    CHARACTER SET AL32UTF8
    NATIONAL CHARACTER SET AL16UTF16
    ... ;