German Characters issue while invoking Web Services via UTL_HTTP

Question

Dear Forum Members,
I'm trying to invoke SAP CRM Web services from Oracle PL/SQL. I have used following code which is working fine.
-- call web service using Oracle UTIL_HTTP packages
DECLARE
  http_req utl_http.req;
     http_resp utl_http.resp;
     lv_request VARCHAR2(32767);
     lc_response CLOB;
     lv_buffer VARCHAR2(32000);
     lv_name          VARCHAR2(256);
     lv_hdr_value     VARCHAR2(1024);     
     l_xml XMLType;          
BEGIN     
     utl_http.set_persistent_conn_support(true);
     utl_http.set_transfer_timeout(600);
     http_req:= utl_http.begin_request
                                   ( url => 'http://xyz3ni92.server.xyz.com:8045/sap/bc/srt/xip/sap/crm_bupa_custid_qr/011/customersbycrmid/http_binding'
                                   , method => 'POST'                              
     lv_request := '<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>'
     ||'<soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope" xmlns:glob="http://sap.com/xi/CRM/Global2">'
   ||'<soap:Header/>'
   ||'<soap:Body>'
      ||'<glob:CustomerCRMByIDQuery>'
         ||'<MessageHeader>'
            ||'<ID schemeID="?" schemeAgencyID="?" schemeAgencySchemeAgencyID="?"></ID>'
            ||'<UUID></UUID>'
            ||'<ReferenceID schemeID="?" schemeAgencyID="?" schemeAgencySchemeAgencyID="?"></ReferenceID>'
            ||'<ReferenceUUID></ReferenceUUID>'
         ||'</MessageHeader>'
         ||'<BusinessPartnerSelectionByBusinessPartner>'
            ||'<UUID schemeID="?" schemeAgencyID="?"></UUID>'
            ||'<InternalID>2200117598</InternalID>'
         ||'</BusinessPartnerSelectionByBusinessPartner>'
      ||'</glob:CustomerCRMByIDQuery>'
           ||'</soap:Body>'
     ||'</soap:Envelope>';     
     /*set username and password*/
     utl_http.set_authentication (
               r => http_req,
               username => 'WS_USER',
               password => 'WS_PASSWORD',
               scheme => 'Basic',
               for_proxy => false);     
     utl_http.set_header(http_req, 'Content-Type', 'application/soap+xml;charset=UTF-8');
     utl_http.set_header(http_req, 'Content-Length', LENGTHB(lv_request));
     utl_http.write_text(http_req, lv_request);
     /*Make HTTP call*/
     http_resp:= utl_http.get_response(http_req);
     /*read response text from response*/
     BEGIN
               LOOP
                         utl_http.read_text(http_resp, lv_buffer);
                         lc_response := lc_response || TO_CLOB(lv_buffer);
               END LOOP;
     EXCEPTION
               WHEN OTHERS THEN
                    -- ora-29266 end-of-body reached
                    IF SQLCODE <> -29266 THEN
                              RAISE;
                    END IF;
     END;
     utl_http.end_response(http_resp);     
     l_xml := XMLType(lc_response);
     /*Log response for testing*/
     DELETE FROM webservice_log;
     INSERT INTO webservice_log (seq_id,xml_response) VALUES (sqe_Webservice_Log.NEXTVAL,l_xml);
EXCEPTION WHEN OTHERS THEN
          RAISE;
END;However, if there are any German Characters in SAP, then they are being replaced by JUNK data when they come to Oracle.
If I invoke the same web-service suing tools like SOAP-UI, then German characters are coming fine. I have also traced web-service requests/responses from SAP side, and there response is showing fine. When it comes to Oracle, they are getting corrupted.
I'm sure it's something to do with character-set, but I'm not able to find-out where and what I should fix/change.
Thanks for your help in advance.
DB: Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.1.0 - 64bit Production
NLS_DATABASE_PARAMETERS
PARAMETER                      VALUE                                 
NLS_LANGUAGE                   AMERICAN                                
NLS_TERRITORY                  AMERICA                                 
NLS_CURRENCY                   $                                       
NLS_ISO_CURRENCY               AMERICA                                 
NLS_NUMERIC_CHARACTERS         .,                                      
NLS_CHARACTERSET               AL32UTF8                                
NLS_CALENDAR                   GREGORIAN                               
NLS_DATE_FORMAT                DD-MON-RR                               
NLS_DATE_LANGUAGE              AMERICAN                                
NLS_SORT                       BINARY                                  
NLS_TIME_FORMAT                HH.MI.SSXFF AM                          
NLS_TIMESTAMP_FORMAT           DD-MON-RR HH.MI.SSXFF AM                
NLS_TIME_TZ_FORMAT             HH.MI.SSXFF AM TZR                      
NLS_TIMESTAMP_TZ_FORMAT        DD-MON-RR HH.MI.SSXFF AM TZR            
NLS_DUAL_CURRENCY              $                                       
NLS_COMP                       BINARY                                  
NLS_LENGTH_SEMANTICS           BYTE                                    
NLS_NCHAR_CONV_EXCP            FALSE                                   
NLS_NCHAR_CHARACTERSET         AL16UTF16                               
NLS_RDBMS_VERSION              11.2.0.1.0   Regards,
Hari
added further details by: Hari_639 on Apr 24, 2013 6:45 PM

Answer 1

Hello Both,
Thank you.
I ran following command from SQL Plus window after connecting to DB..
SQL> @[%NLS_LANG%]
SP2-0310: unable to open file "[AMERICAN_AMERICA.WE8MSWIN1252]"And also I have checked actual data using DUMP function, it looks like data stored is wrong.
I have updated one field in SAP such that it only contains German character ä. When I query corresponding data from Oracle I got following output..
SELECT xmlresponse.Notes,
  dump(xmlresponse.Notes,1010) dump_text
FROM webservice_log,
  Xmltable(Xmlnamespaces
                              ('http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope' AS "env",
                               'http://sap.com/xi/CRM/Global2' AS "nm",
                               'urn:sap.com:proxy:DCT:/1SAI/TAS57DF0B317943DEAE3C49:702' AS "prx"
                               '/env:Envelope/env:Body/nm:CustomerCRMByIDResponse/BusinessPartner'
                               PASSING xml_response
                               columns
                               NOTES VARCHAR2(4000) PATH 'TextCollection/Text/TextContent/Text'
                         ) XMLRESPONSE;
/* Output */
NOTES -- DUMP_TEXT
ä     Typ=1 Len=4 CharacterSet=AL32UTF8: 195,131,194,164But decimal notation for German character ä is different!
SELECT DUMP('ä',1010) dump_text from dual;
/*Output*/
DUMP_TEXT
Typ=96 Len=2 CharacterSet=AL32UTF8: 195,164Regards,
Hari