Ensuring code page compatibility for ClearQuest integrations

All data in a ClearQuest® database must be from the same code page. For successful integration, make sure that data sent from the integrated product is compatible with the ClearQuest code page.
The code page determines which characters can be entered in all ClearQuest databases associated with the schema repository. The following information describes the implementation details for ClearQuest code pages.
  • ClearQuest only stores characters that are supported by the ClearQuest data code page. This means that for all code pages other than 65001 (UTF-8), ClearQuest issues an error for any information sent by the integration that cannot be represented in the data code page. With code page 65001, any Unicode character can be represented, so character conversion errors do not occur when data is passed to ClearQuest.
  • ClearQuest returns characters to an integration either in the local code page of the operating system, or as Unicode characters, depending on which API system is used and how the program has configured Unicode awareness. See the topic Setting the return string mode for hooks and scripts in the API reference help for information about Unicode awareness. In the mode RETURN_STRING_LOCAL, Rational® ClearQuest issues an error to the integration if any characters in the return string are not in the local code page.
  • If your ClearQuest data code page value is set to ASCII, you might not be able to integrate with other products that do not limit data entry to ASCII characters. If you integrate with a product that does not have this restriction, any ClearQuest database set with an ASCII code page rejects all non-ASCII characters that are sent by the integrated product.

Example

The following example shows how a code page mismatch can prevent an integration between ClearQuest and DevOps Administrator from functioning correctly.

ClearQuest is installed on a computer with the 1252 operating system code page and the ClearQuest data code page value for the database set is also 1252.

The DevOps Administrator client is installed on a computer with the 936 (Japanese) operating system code page.

A user creates a DevOps Administrator project, and because she is working on a computer with a 936 code page, the project name includes Japanese characters. She then attempts to associate the new DevOps Administrator project with a ClearQuest database. The attempt fails because the Japanese characters in the DevOps Administrator project name are not from the 1252 code page, which is the data code page value of the ClearQuest database set.

Enabling record types for integrations

Some packages enable existing record types in a schema. When you install these packages, you can select which record types you want the package to enable. If you add a new record type after adding the package, you can enable the new record type with the package functionality.

See ClearQuest integration packages for a list of packages and the record types that they modify.

To enable package functionality for a new record type:

  1. Start the Designer.
  2. Right-click on a schema version in the Rational ClearQuest Schema Repository Explorer view and click Packages > Setup Record Types for Packages.
  3. Select a record type from the Record Types list.
  4. Select the packages that you want to enable for the record type from the Available Packages list.
Parent topic: About integration packages, configuration, and testing