WebSphere® ESB is globalized: It has multicultural support, and the user interface and documentation are translated into multiple languages.
Multicultural support means that WebSphere ESB supports the cultural conventions of multiple languages and geographic regions. These conventions include the use of various writing systems and sort orders; various formats for date, time, numbers, and currency; and various keyboard layouts.
Because WebSphere ESB is built on WebSphere Application Server, you can get information about developing and assembling globalized applications in the WebSphere Application Server information center. See "Learn about WebSphere programming extensions" in the WebSphere Application Server documentation.
WebSphere ESB supports bidirectional languages, through bidirectional enablement. Bidirectional enablement is a mechanism for accurately displaying and processing bidirectional script data inside components either bundled with WebSphere ESB (for example, Web-based tools such as the Common Base Event Browser) or supported by it (for example, service components).
WebSphere ESB processes all bidirectional language data in the logical, left-to-right format, which is the Windows® standard bidirectional language format. It processes data passed to internal components, stores data, and outputs the data in that format. WebSphere Adapters and other Enterprise Information Systems (EIS), must convert the data into this format before sending the data to be processed by WebSphere ESB. Because the data output by WebSphere ESB is also in the logical, left-to-right format, the receiving application must convert it to the correct bidirectional format required by the external EIS.
The following table shows the attributes and settings that must match the Windows standard bidirectional format.
Letter position | Purpose | Allowable values | Default value | Meaning |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Ordering schema | I | I | Implicit |
V | Visual | |||
2 | Orientation | L | L | Left to right |
R | Right to left | |||
C | Contextual left to right | |||
D | Contextual right to left | |||
3 | Symmetric swapping | Y | Y | Symmetrical swapping is on |
N | Symmetrical swapping is off | |||
4 | Shaping | S | N | Text is shaped |
N | Text is not shaped | |||
I | Initial shaping | |||
M | Middle shaping | |||
F | Final shaping | |||
B | Isolated shaping | |||
5 | Numeric | H | N | Hindi (National) |
C | Contextual | |||
N | Nominal |
For data coming from an external component that does not enforce bidirectional support, such as Web services or connectors that are not enabled for processing bidirectional data, you can use example bidirectional application programming interfaces (APIs), based on the IBM® Java™ Development Kit (JDK) to create APIs that transform the data from an external source into the supported bidirectional language format and that transform data sent from WebSphere ESB to an external EIS into the bidirectional format used by that specific EIS.
To create APIs that transform string objects, see "Transforming string objects from one bidirectional language format to another."
To create APIs that transform data objects, see "Transforming data objects from one bidirectional language format to another."
For more information about bidirectional language, see the technical articles on IBM developerWorks®, available at www.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/library/techarticles/bidi/bidigen.html.