Selecting UTF-8 or Unicode to Setup Content Server for International Use (Doc ID 446011.1)

Last updated on MARCH 05, 2024

Applies to:

Symptoms

There are a number of issues to consider when installing Content Server for international use. How you go about setting up your configuration depends on the database you will be using and the database character set.

During the installation of Content Server, if you select to have the installation create your database tables you are given a choice for "Unicode". Selecting Unicode will branch the installation to create database tables that use the "Unicode database scripts" and create NVARCHAR2/NVARCHAR fields, whereas the "standard database scripts" are used to create tables with VARCHAR2/VARCHAR fields. This difference can lead to post installation errors if your database encoding is not properly matched.

Oracle Database

You should not select the "Unicode" option when running the installation scripts and using an Oracle database.

To setup an international environment, instead of using "Unicode", you will want to create an Oracle database that uses AL32UTF8 (the standard UTF-8 character encoding) and use the "standard database scripts" to create the tables.

To do this you will need to set your Oracle database encoding in advance of the Content Server installation. When you have an AL32UTF8 database you can install Content Server using the "standard database scripts" (not Unicode database scripts). See below in this article for more information on how to identify the encoding of your database.

SQL Server Database

To setup an international environment, you should use the "Unicode" option when you are installing Content Server using a SQL Server database. Selecting Unicode will allow the installation to create a SQL Server database with Unicode (multi-byte) encoding.

Changes

Cause

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