Heartache making web app compatible with Japanese

Question

I maintain a Java Web application which interfaces with an Oracle 9 database via JDBC.<br>
<br>
The database settings are:<br>
NLS_CHARACTERSET WE8ISO8859P1<br>
NLS_NCHAR_CHARACTERSET AL16UTF16<br>
<br>
I have one column in which users now should be able to enter all types of characters, including Western and Japanese text. The column is currently set to CLOB, and I never enter more than 4000 characters.<br>
<br>
I don't want to switch the entire database to UTF-8, because that means shutting down, backing up, restarting. I don't have sufficient Oracle knowledge to do that without risking significant downtime.<br>
<br>
What do I have to do in order to enter Japanese and Western characters into that field?<br>
<br>
I've done the following so far, but without success:<br>
1. The JSP page includes the encoding information - <%@page contentType="text/html; charset=UTF-8"%><br>
2. I changed the field in Oracle to NClob<br>
3. I use the following code to insert my test Japanese characters (i.e. the TEXT2 field is the NClob field):<br>
dbconn = DriverManager.getConnection("jdbc:oracle:thin:@(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=thehost.com) (PORT=1521))(CONNECT_DATA=(SERVICE_NAME=servicename)))","scott", "tiger");<br>
     pstmt = dbconn.prepareStatement("INSERT INTO TEST_MATTHIAS (ID, TEXT1,TEXT2,TEXT3,TEXT4) VALUES(?,?,?,?,?)");<br>
               for (int i=0; i<1; i++) {<br>
                    pstmt.setString(1, request.getParameter("id")+"");<br>
                    pstmt.setString(2, request.getParameter("text1")+"");<br>
                    pstmt.setString(3, request.getParameter("text2")+"");<br>
                    pstmt.setString(4, request.getParameter("text3")+"");<br>
                    pstmt.setString(5, request.getParameter("text4")+"");<br>
                    pstmt.executeUpdate();
               }<br>
4. I query the table with the following code:<br>
pstmt = dbconn.prepareStatement("SELECT ID, TEXT1, TEXT2, TEXT3, TEXT4 FROM TEST_MATTHIAS WHERE ID='1'");<br>
               results = pstmt.executeQuery();<br>
               while(results.next()){<br>
                    result = "Text1: "+results.getString("TEXT1")+"<br>Text2: "+results.getString("TEXT2")+"<br>Text3: "+results.getString("TEXT3")+"<br>Text4: "+results.getString("TEXT4");<br>
               }<br>
5. BUT, even with these changes, the text is not inserted correctly, and is not selected correctly. I use Aqua Data Studio as my main application to query the database. But the code above, of course, is in my JSP.<br>
6. My test text that I try to insert into the form field on the JSP: "Yahoo!&#12503;&#12524;&#12511;&#12450;&#12512;"<br>
7. The text that comes out of my SQL Select statement: "Yahoo!×ìߢà"<br>
<br>
Can someone help or give me tips on what I am missing?<br>
<br>
<br>
Sincerely,<br>
<br>
jetcat33
Message was edited by:
user510970

Answer 1

Try this:
request.setCharacterEncoding("utf-8"); // <-- here
pstmt = dbconn.prepareStatement("INSERT INTO TEST_MATTHIAS (ID, TEXT1,TEXT2,TEXT3,TEXT4) VALUES(?,?,?,?,?)");
pstmt.setFormOfUse(3, OraclePreparedStatement.FORM_NCHAR); // <-- here
pstmt.setString(1, request.getParameter("id")+"");
pstmt.setString(2, request.getParameter("text1")+"");
pstmt.setString(3, request.getParameter("text2")+"");
pstmt.setString(4, request.getParameter("text3")+"");
pstmt.setString(5, request.getParameter("text4")+"");
pstmt.executeUpdate();