We will be receiving files that has Chinese characters in BIG-5 character set (DBCS) in which some hexadecimal values are recognized as being the first byte of a two-byte sequence that collectively identifies a particular character. We should get the file, decipher the data and display it in CICS screen. This is where we are facing the challenge.
Ö As a First step, I am looking for the details of emulator that can support Chinese characters. Only after we get the emulator details/set up required for displaying Chinese data, we can proceed to the next step, viz., processing the data and display it in CICS screen.
Ö Next step is to process the data to display it. Once we get the required emulator set up in a machine, we hope that the below approach will work out. Please correct if we are wrong.
For batch processing we are planning to proceed in this way. The file that we receive will be in BIG-5 character set (DBCS). We need to pull that file using FTP/XCOM in the ASCII format. Convert the DBCS (ASCII) data to DBCS (EBCDIC) data. Usually this is done through some converter routine. At this point we don’t have much information regarding the processing of this converter routine. Mostly it may a third party program where only the load module alone would be sufficient. In the conversion from ASCII to EBCDIC, the length of the converted data might differ from the original length because of the insertion and deletion of shift-out (SO) characters and shift-in (SI) characters and the DBCS code scheme difference. An SO character is a code extension character that substitutes, for the graphic characters of the standard character set, an alternative set of graphic characters upon which an agreement exists or that has been designated by use of code-extension procedures. An SI character is a code extension character that is used to terminate a sequence that has been introduced by the SO character to make effective the graphic characters of the standard character set.
For Online processing, we need to enable SOSI parameter for the DBCS field in the screen. No changes are required to the online program. This MAP definition is sufficient to convert the DBCS character to EBCDIC internally.
If we can get the set up details for the emulator, we can try out the above method to display the Chinese data.
Any information you can provide in this regard will be highly appreciated.
I know how to solve this problem because i'm now using Bancs system and got the same problem with you. But the solution is a very long story.
For batch program, as you said, you can transfer the DBCS to EBCDIC first and then use FTP, but the EBCDIC on PC is different from HOST, there is little change on the format. So you need a very short COBOL program to do the conversion. I have done this successfully. (Our host doesn't support APVUFILE to transfer BIG5 characters, only supports INDFILE, so we work out this solution); For online transactions, if you want to display/process DBCS, first you should chang your CICS initialization procedure/parm to support DBCS, and then you need use DISPLAY-OF or NATIONAL-OF function to display/process DBCS. For details, you can contact me on MSN. Or post a reply(but maybe i can't reply to you in time).....
For batch processing we are planning to proceed in this way. The file that we receive will be in BIG-5 character set (DBCS). We need to pull that file using FTP/XCOM in the ASCII format. Convert the DBCS (ASCII) data to DBCS (EBCDIC) data. Usually this is done through some converter routine. At this point we don’t have much information regarding the processing of this converter routine. Mostly it may a third party program where only the load module alone would be sufficient. In the conversion from ASCII to EBCDIC, the length of the converted data might differ from the original length because of the insertion and deletion of shift-out (SO) characters and shift-in (SI) characters and the DBCS code scheme difference. An SO character is a code extension character that substitutes, for the graphic characters of the standard character set, an alternative set of graphic characters upon which an agreement exists or that has been designated by use of code-extension procedures. An SI character is a code extension character that is used to terminate a sequence that has been introduced by the SO character to make effective the graphic characters of the standard character set.
