Generating a new code page converter

Before you start:
  • Read Code page converters, which provides information about what a code page converter is, and about the code pages that WebSphere Message Broker supports.

If you need to support a code page that is not in the default set of code pages that WebSphere Message Broker supports, generate a new code page converter:

  1. Create or find a mapping data file with the file extension .ucm for the converter that you require. You can download many .ucm files from the ICU Character set mapping files archive. These mapping data files are available and can be modified without restriction. An example mapping data file is ibm-1284_P100-1996.ucm.
  2. Rename the .ucm to a file name with the format ibm-number.ucm where number is a number that you choose to identify the code page. Make sure that this number is not already used in one of the Supported code pages. An example is renaming ibm-1284_P100-1996.ucm to ibm-1284.ucm.
  3. Go to ICU downloads and download the binary distribution for your system. An exact match is not important as long as the binaries can run. If you have problems building the converter, see the ICU user guide.
  4. Extract the files from the binary distribution archive into a temporary directory.
  5. Copy the library and binary files to a directory within the environment path and libpath. (Alternatively, copy the library and binary files to directory that is not temporary and modify the environment path and libpath to include this directory.)
  6. Use the makeconv tool from the extracted files to convert the mapping data file (.ucm files) into a binary converter file (.cnv file), by entering the following command:
    makeconv -p ICUDATA mapping_file.ucm 
    where mapping_file.ucm is the mapping data file that you are using.

    The name of the binary converter file that makeconv produces is:

    icudt32<platform-suffix>_<mapping_file>.cnv
    where:
    • <platform-suffix> is one of the following values:
      • l for little-endian ASCII platforms
      • b for big-endian ASCII platforms
      • e for EBCDIC platforms
    • <mapping_file> is the name of the mapping data file that was converted.
    To make the .cnv file for ibm-1284.ucm, use the following command:
    makeconv -p ICUDATA ibm-1284.ucm 
  7. Copy the file with the file extension .cnv for the code page that you need, into a directory that WebSphere Message Broker can access; for example, on UNIX: /var/mqsi/converters.
  8. Associate the broker with the code page converter by entering the name of the directory where the converter is stored:
    • To create a new broker that is associated with the converter, enter the following command at a command prompt:
      mqsicreatebroker -c directory
    • To alter an existing broker to recognize the converter, enter the following command at a command prompt:
      mqsichangebroker -c directory
    • To affect all the products and the broker command-line tools that are using ICU, add the directory to the ICU_DATA environment variable. If you have already used either the mqsicreatebroker command or the mqsichangebroker command to specify the code page converter to be used, the broker ignores the ICU_DATA value.

    Start of changeDo not use mqsicreatebroker -c to set the converter path if you are using a converter that matches one of the built-in converters that are provided with Version 6.0, and that converter is the local code page for the broker. Use the ICU_DATA environment variable instead.End of change

Related concepts
Code page converters
Related reference
Supported code pages