MobiLink Synchronization Reference
  Character Set Considerations
    Character set considerations

Character-set translation during synchronization: Windows

During synchronization, characters may need to be translated from one character set to another. The following translations occur as characters are passed between the remote application and the consolidated database.

Character-set translation during upload 

The MobiLink client sends data to the MobiLink synchronization server using the character set of the remote database.

1. The MobiLink synchronization server communicates with the consolidated database using the Unicode ODBC API. To do so, the MobiLink synchronization server translates all characters received from the remote database into Unicode.

2. If necessary, the ODBC driver for the consolidated database server translates the characters from Unicode into the character set of your consolidated database. This translation is controlled solely by the ODBC driver for your consolidated database system. Hence, behavior can differ between two different database systems, particularly systems made by different manufacturers. MobiLink synchronization works with a number of database systems. Check the documentation of your particular consolidated server and ODBC driver for details.

Character-set translation during download 

1. The ODBC driver for the consolidated database system receives characters in the coding of the consolidated database. It translates these characters into Unicode to pass them through the Unicode API to the MobiLink synchronization server. This translation is controlled solely by the ODBC driver for your consolidated database system. Check the documentation of your particular consolidated server and ODBC driver for details.

2. The MobiLink synchronization server receives characters through the Unicode ODBC API. If the remote database uses a different character set, the MobiLink synchronization server translates the characters before downloading them.

Examples 

• UltraLite applications on Windows CE devices use the Unicode character set.

  When you synchronize a Windows CE application, no character translation occurs within the MobiLink synchronization server. The server finds that data arriving from the application is already in Unicode and passes it directly to the ODBC driver. Similarly, no character-set translation is necessary when downloading data.

• All Adaptive Server Anywhere databases and all UltraLite applications on platforms other than Windows CE use the character set determined by the collating sequence of the remote database.

  When you synchronize a remote database, the MobiLink synchronization server performs character set translations between the character set of the remote database and Unicode.

Controlling ODBC driver character-set translation