Charset from UTF8 -- IBM864 or cp864

Question

I have an applet which does the printing. When applet is trying to print , except for
arabic alpha characters , everything is getting printed. Junk is getting printed in
for alpha characters. Arabic numerals are getting printed correctly.
I'm using UTF-8 in the jsp page where we are calling the applet. Printer is using
IBM CP864 encoding. In the OutputStream , I had specified the required supported
encoding i.e. cp864.
Can anyone help me out in resolving this issue ?
<object
id="ReceiptPrinterApplet"
classid="clsid:CAFEEFAC-0015-0000-0007-ABCDEFFEDCBB"
width="0" height="0" >
<param name="code" value="ReceiptPrinterApplet.class">
<param name="printermode" value="Broad">
<param name="Receipt No1" value="127733">
<param name="Receipt No in Arabic1" value="&#1633;&#1634;&#1639;&#1639;&#1635;&#1635;">
<param name="Date1" value="23-09-2007 10:31:19">
<param name="Date in Arabic1" value="&#1634;&#1635;-&#1632;&#1641;-&#1634;&#1632;&#1632;&#1639; &#1633;&#1632;:&#1635;&#1633;:&#1633;&#1641;">
<param name="Transaction Code1" value="PAYTRANCODE95196864">
<param name="Account Number1" value="0504871150">
<param name="Account Number Arabic1" value="&#1632;&#1637;&#1632;&#1636;&#1640;&#1639;&#1633;&#1633;&#1637;&#1632;">
<param name="Party Name1" value="KUANJIKOMBIL VARGHESE ALEXANDER (720216)- PO Box No:245">
<param name="Party Name Arabic1" value="����� ������ ������ �������">
<param name="Payment Amount1" value="1931.4">
<param name="Payment Amount in Arabic1" value="&#1633;&#1641;&#1635;&#1633;.&#1636;">
</object>
This is the java code which is used to
fos = new FileOutputStream("LPT1");
PrintStream pw = new PrintStream(fos,true,"Cp864");
pw.print()..
pw.print()..

Answer 1

Issue : arabic alpha character not getting printed
In my application , we are treating arabic numerals and arabic alpha characters differently. Arabic alpha are stored as UTF-8 in the database
// while saving
this.arabicDesc=new String(paymentTransactionTypeDetailVO.getArabicDesc().getBytes("ISO8859_1"),"UTF8") ;
// while retrieving from database
paymentTransactionTypeDetailVO.setArabicDesc(new String (arabicDesc.getBytes("UTF8"),"ISO8859_1"));In case of arabic numerals , they are converted on the fly to arabic. Code used is
public String convertDigitToArabic(long id)
          nf.setMinimumFractionDigits(0);
          if (nf instanceof DecimalFormat) {
            DecimalFormat df = (DecimalFormat)nf;
            df.setDecimalSeparatorAlwaysShown(false);
            DecimalFormatSymbols dfs = df.getDecimalFormatSymbols();
            // set the beginning of the range to Arabic digits
            dfs.setZeroDigit('\u0660');
            df.setDecimalFormatSymbols(dfs);
          return new String(nf.format(id).getBytes("UTF8"),"ISO8859_1")
      }Through the above mentioned methods we are converting the arabic.
In all the jsp pages , we are using
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=UTF-8">Finally jsp page will get created like this
<object
  id="ReceiptPrinterApplet"
  classid="clsid:CAFEEFAC-0015-0000-0007-ABCDEFFEDCBB"
  width="0" height="0" >
   <param name="code" value="ReceiptPrinterApplet.class">  
   <param name="printermode" value="Broad">  
   <param name="Receipt No1" value="127733">
   <param name="Receipt No in Arabic1" value="&#1633;&#1634;&#1639;&#1639;&#1635;&#1635;">
   <param name="Date1" value="23-09-2007 10:31:19">
   <param name="Date in Arabic1" value="&#1634;&#1635;-&#1632;&#1641;-&#1634;&#1632;&#1632;&#1639; &#1633;&#1632;:&#1635;&#1633;:&#1633;&#1641;"> 
   <param name="Payment Type" value=""> <!-- there is not corresponding field --> 
   <param name="Transaction Code1" value="PAYTRANCODE95196864">
   <param name="Payment Type1" value="">
   <param name="Party Id:1" value="">
   <param name="/Request No1" value="">
   <param name="Account Number1" value="0504871150">
   <param name="Account Number Arabic1" value="&#1632;&#1637;&#1632;&#1636;&#1640;&#1639;&#1633;&#1633;&#1637;&#1632;">
   <param name="Party Name1" value="KUANJIKOMBIL VARGHESE ALEXANDER (720216)- PO Box No:245">
   <param name="Party Name Arabic1" value="����� ������ ������ �������">
   <param name="Cashier Name1" value="cbcmdev">
   <param name="Payment Amount1" value="1931.4">
   <param name="Payment Amount in Arabic1" value="&#1633;&#1641;&#1635;&#1633;.&#1636;">
   <param name="Currency1" value="AED">
   <param name="PAYMENT_LEVEL1" value="">  
   <param name="Bank code1" value="">
   <param name="Cheque Number1" value="">
   <param name="Cheque Date1" value="">
</object>In the applet , we are using code like
//fos = new FileOutputStream("c://BroadReceipt.txt");
fos = new FileOutputStream("LPT1");  
PrintStream pw =  new PrintStream(fos, true, "cp864");Arabic Numerals are getting printed but not alph character ( for eg.
<param name="Party Name Arabic1" value="����� ������ ������ �������">
Can you identify where could be the problem
Why there is a difference in alpha and numeric ? Is database storing the value in a different format ?
We are also displaying these contents in the preview ( html ) , there all the values ( arabic alpha as well as numerals) are getting displayed correctly ..
When i changed my applet code from cp864 to UTF8 and used the same code to write into a flat file , all the values are getting displayed correctly. So definetly there is an issue in playing with encoding. How to resolve this issue ?
code of applet
public void printBroadReceipt() {
      try {           
            FileOutputStream fos = null;           
            int noOfReceipts = receiptData.size() / noOfDataPerPage ;
            System.out.println("No of receipts "+noOfReceipts);
            fos = new FileOutputStream("LPT1");  
            PrintStream pw =  new PrintStream(fos,true,"Cp864");
            for ( int pageIndex = 0 ; pageIndex < noOfReceipts ; pageIndex++ ) {               
                System.out.println("Inside loop "+pageIndex);
                pw.print("\u001B\u0043\u0012");     // set page length to 16 lines
                pw.print("\u001B\u0000");           // set line feed to 1/8 inch
                pw.print("\u0002\u0006");
                // skipping header space
                pw.print(CONTROL_LF+CONTROL_LF+CONTROL_LF);                             
                // Receipt Number in Eng & Arabic
                pw.print(generateLine(18,getString(receiptData.get(0 + (pageIndex*noOfDataPerPage))),42,getString(receiptData.get(1 + (pageIndex*noOfDataPerPage))))+CONTROL_LF);      
                pw.print(CONTROL_LF);
                // Date in Eng & Arabic
                pw.print(generateLine(10,getString(receiptData.get(2 + (pageIndex*noOfDataPerPage))),44,getString(receiptData.get(3 + (pageIndex*noOfDataPerPage))))+CONTROL_LF);      
                // Transaction Code    
                pw.print(generateLine(25,getString(receiptData.get(5 + (pageIndex*noOfDataPerPage))),0,null)+CONTROL_LF);      
                // since the pre-printed receipt dont have provision to print the label,
                // we are printing the label
                String partyId = getString(receiptData.get(7 + (pageIndex*noOfDataPerPage)));
                // cancelled
                if ( (partyId == null) || (partyId.length() == 0))  {                 
                      pw.print(generateLine(30,getString(receiptData.get(6 + (pageIndex*noOfDataPerPage))),0,null)+CONTROL_LF);                            
                else {
                   String temp = generateLine(7,"Party No. ",3,partyId);
                   pw.print(generateLine(1,temp,30,getString(receiptData.get(6 + (pageIndex*noOfDataPerPage))))+ CONTROL_LF);
                String requestNo = getString(receiptData.get(8 + (pageIndex*noOfDataPerPage)));
                if ( (requestNo == null) || (requestNo.length() == 0))                  
                  pw.print(generateLine(18,getString(receiptData.get(9 + (pageIndex*noOfDataPerPage))),42,getString(receiptData.get(10 + (pageIndex*noOfDataPerPage))))+CONTROL_LF); 
                else {
                   pw.print(generateLine(7,"Request No. ",1,getString(receiptData.get(9 + (pageIndex*noOfDataPerPage))))+CONTROL_LF);                     // 9  Request Number
                //pw.print(CONTROL_LF);               
                pw.print(CONTROL_LF);                               
                pw.print(CONTROL_LF);                        
                pw.print(generateLine(13,trim(getString(receiptData.get(11 + (pageIndex*noOfDataPerPage))),50),0,null)+CONTROL_LF);      
                //pw.print(generateLine(13,trim(getString(receiptData.get(11 + (pageIndex*noOfDataPerPage))),50,100),0,null)+CONTROL_LF);      
                pw.print(generateLine(13,trim(getString(receiptData.get(12 + (pageIndex*noOfDataPerPage))),50),0,null)+CONTROL_LF);      
                pw.print(CONTROL_LF);  
                pw.print(generateLine(50,getString(receiptData.get(15 + (pageIndex*noOfDataPerPage))),0,null)+CONTROL_LF);      
                //pw.print(generateLine(50,getString(receiptData.get(16 + (pageIndex*noOfDataPerPage))),0,null)+CONTROL_LF);                      
                pw.print(generateLine(10,             
                         (getString(receiptData.get(13 + (pageIndex*noOfDataPerPage)))+" "+
                         getString(receiptData.get(17 + (pageIndex*noOfDataPerPage)))+" "+
                         getString(receiptData.get(18 + (pageIndex*noOfDataPerPage)))+" "+
                         getString(receiptData.get(19 + (pageIndex*noOfDataPerPage)))+" "+
                         getString(receiptData.get(20 + (pageIndex*noOfDataPerPage)))),50,
                         getString(receiptData.get(16 + (pageIndex*noOfDataPerPage))))+CONTROL_LF);        // Cashier Details                        
                 pw.print("\u000C");
            pw.close();
            fos.close();
            fos = null;
            pw  = null;
      } catch (Exception e )
         e.printStackTrace();
   }