Introducing DirectConnect Anywhere

This chapter introduces basic DirectConnect concepts and outlines the globalization process.

This chapter includes the following topics:

DirectConnect Anywhere is a component of the Enterprise Connect Data Access IPS, which consists of components that provide access to distributed data. For more information about the Enterprise Connect Data Access IPS, see the Overview Guide for the Enterprise Connect Data Access IPS.

The DirectConnect Anywhere environment

DirectConnect consists of a server and one or more service libraries. The server provides the framework in which the service libraries operate. Each access service library accesses data from a particular target database, such as AS/400, DB2, Informix, ODBC, and so forth.

The DirectConnect Anywhere Access Service Library accesses ODBC-accessible data. It consists of one or more access services that have specific sets of configuration properties.

An access service does the following:

Transforms SQL
Supports remote procedure calls (RPCs)
Transfers data between ODBC accessed databases and other servers, if the servers are accessible through Open Client(TM)
Supports catalog stored procedures (CSPs) and system stored procedures received from OmniConnect

When a client connects, the access service logs into the ODBC database target using the client user ID and password, plus the ODBC-configured data source name.

Globalization

Globalization consists of internationalization and localization of messages.

Internationalization

Internationalization consists of character codeset conversion and cultural formatting.

Codeset conversion is converting the hexadecimal representation of a character from a codeset in a target database to a codeset in a client application or the reverse. DirectConnect Anywhere provides a translator dynamic link library that works with an ODBC interface for codeset conversion.

Cultural formatting concerns designating decimal separators, monetary signs, date and time separators, and a three-digit grouping symbol. Cultural formatting in DirectConnect Anywhere is performed through the use of configuration properties.

Supported character sets

The Sybase Unilib Library supports the following character sets:

USA
Canada
Japan
UK
Switzerland
Germany
Belgium
Sweden/Finland
Denmark/Norway
France
Italy

Supported Date and Time formats

To facilitate internationalization, the access service can be set to return dates and time in any one of the following formats:

char_iso: yyyy-mm-dd-hh.mm.ss.nnnnnn
char_usa: mm/dd/yyyy hh:mm PM
char_eur: dd.mm.yyyy hh.mm.ss
char_jis: yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss
char_odbc: yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss.nnnnnn

Codeset conversion

Two configuration properties control whether the DirectConnect Anywhere supplied translator library is loaded. The choices are as follows:

If you supply different values for the DefaultClientCodeset and DefaultTargetCodeset properties, the Sybase unilib translation library is used.
The translation library is required for multi-byte codeset translation.
If you supply the same values to both of the properties, theSybase unilib translation library is not used.

For information about the DefaultClientCodeset and DefaultTargetCodeset configuration properties, see Chapter 2, "Configuring the DirectConnect Access Service Library"

Localization

Two sets of messages can be localized:

Messages generated by the target database manager and passed to the client application without change
Messages generated in DirectConnect Anywhere

The target database manager can be any application between DirectConnect Anywhere and the target data file, including the ODBC driver.

Database manager messages are not localized by DirectConnect Anywhere. For information on how to set up localization of such messages, see your database manager and ODBC driver documentation.

Messages generated in DirectConnect Anywhere are always localized.


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