Re: CodePages and IFS

[Scott Klement <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Jim,

This symptom usually means that you marked the file with a CCSID of 819, 
but you wrote the data in EBCDIC.  When that happens, the actual hex 
values of teh data are EBCDIC, so they can be viewed on the i, but not 
on the PC.

You need to first create the file and mark it with 819.  Then close it. 
 Then open it again with O_TEXTDATA to tell the system to translate it. 
 That way, when you write data, it ends up in ASCII.

It'll still be readable from the i -- the i will see the codepage of 819 
and will translate as needed.  But, Windows doesn't understand the idea 
of "marking a file with a codepage", so it'll only understand it if it's 
already in ASCII.

If you're on V5R2 or later, you can use O_TEXT_CREAT to eliminate the 
need for two calls to open.   If you're on V5R1 or later, I suggest 
using O_CCSID instead of O_CODEPAGE because O_CCSID has more 
functionality (although, you don't need it today, you might need it later)

So to create and translate on V3R2-V4R5:

        unlink(filename);
        fd = open( filename
                 : O_CREAT+O_CODEPAGE+O_WRONLY
                 : mode
                 : 819 );
        rc = close(fd);

        fd = open( filename
                 : O_WRONLY+O_TEXTDATA+O_CODEPAGE
                 : 0
                 : 0);

in V5R1:
        same thing, but use O_CCSID instead of O_CODEPAGE.

in V5R2 and later:

        unlink(filename);
        fd = open( filename
                 : O_CREAT+O_CCSID+O_WRONLY+O_TEXTDATA
                      +O_TEXT_CREAT
                 : mode
                 : 819
                 : 0 );

Hope that makes sense.

Also, keep in mind that 819 is iso-8859-1.  Assuming that's the encoding 
you want your your XML, that's good.  If you want UTF-8, though, use 
CCSID 1208 instead.  (UTF-8 requires a CCSID, not a codepage).



Lowary, Jim wrote:
> I'm using Scott's routines (Many Thanks, Scott!) to write an XML file to
> the IFS and using codepage 819.  Now the data is displayable using green
> screen via WRKLNK and if I do properties on that STMF it show a CodePage
> of 819;  but if I use the iSeries navigator and drag it to my desktop it
> is gibberish.  
>
> I was thinking that would be the other way around, that with CodePage
> 819 it wouldn't be readable on the iSeries but would on the PC.
>
> I've even tried using CodePage 37 and get the same results.
>
> There is obviously something I'm missing our don't understand (this is
> an understatement at this point!)
>
> Thanks,
> -- Jim  Lowary