What is Unicode?
The letters and other characters of a language have to be interpreted by the SAP system. Interpretation and representation of these characters is realized with the help of internationally standardized tables, also called code pages. In order to save hardware resources, these code pages are designed to allow for the representation of a limited number of different languages with only one code page respectively. Western European and Eastern European languages, for example, can only be applied at the same time if two different code pages are being used.
But Unicode code pages are different. These enhanced tables allow for the representation of all languages with a single code page only.
What do I need Unicode for?
Certain SAP systems (such as BW, APO) will only permit the interpretation of a single code page.
Communication between systems can result in non-interpretable characters being loaded into the database. Each connection between systems has therefore to be configured in a way that will only allow for the loading of data from a single code page at a time.
However, this has changed with 4.7 Enterprise. This release is Unicode-enabled.
How do I switch?
At first, the SAP system is brought to a Unicode-enabled release level (e.g. BW 3.5, SAP 4.7 Enterprise, ECC5.0). The switch to Unicode cannot be carried out prior to this upgrade. The procedure employed corresponds to the SAP migration procedure.
However, before this can be done, some check and changeover reports have to be initiated. These reports prepare SAP programs for Unicode and check all datasets that don't contain language keys. Systems that previously only had one code page can thus be unambiguously identified.
For systems which had more than one code page before, each data set has to checked separately and explicitly assigned to a code page.
Because of the time and effort involved, the upgrade and migration to Unicode should only always be performed prior to the introduction of a new language.
Services
REALTECH is preferred or exclusive migration partner for Microsoft, DELL, Unisys and MySQL - and for a reason: REALTECH has completed more than 250 migrations from every approved platform to a new environment and made a name for itself as a reliable partner. Due in no small part to this experience, we are able to successfully assist our customers in every field.
- Determination of a SAP IT structure tailored to your requirements.
- Project planning and management.
- Vendor-independent determination of resource requirements.
- Design, support and implementation of the bidding process.
- Installation, upgrade and migration of SAP landscapes.