How to convert xml utf 16 to utf 8

Question

Is it possible to convert xml file with UTF16 to UTF8 using ABAP? I am using ECC 6.0
Appreciated your inputs.

Answer 1

Hhmm, interesting. I thought it should be straightforward, but it the two solutions I could think of seem a bit convoluted. First way is probably to use the iXML libray, where the starting point is the class CL_IXML. You can find the SAP documentation [here|http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/86/8280d212d511d5991b00508b6b8b11/frameset.htm].
Then there's a "manual approach": Use OPEN DATASET to read the UTF-16 file, then modify the XML encoding attribute and save it as UTF-8 file. Not straightforward, because the tempting command option [OPEN DATASET .. LEGACY TEXT MODE CODE PAGE|http://help.sap.com/abapdocu_70/en/ABAPOPEN_DATASET_MODE.htm] doesn't work. Per ABAP help:
For the specification of the code page cp, a character-type data object is expected that must contain - at the time of execution of the statement - the label of a non-Unicode page from the column CPCODEPAGE in the database table TCP00. A Unicode page must not be specified.
Darn, looks like they expect most Unicode files to be UTF-8. But that might be the reason you want to convert it...
So use the following steps:
<ol><li>Open the file as a binary file (only option for UTF-16, seev[here|http://help.sap.com/abapdocu_70/en/ABAPOPEN_DATASET_ENCODING.htm]) via [OPEN DATASET file FOR INPUT IN BINARY MODE|http://help.sap.com/abapdocu_70/en/ABAPOPEN_DATASET.htm] and read content into XSTRING using [READ DATASET|http://help.sap.com/abapdocu_70/en/ABAPREAD_DATASET.htm].</li>
<li>Convert it to a string using utility class [CL_ABAP_CONV_IN_CE|http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/79/c554afb3dc11d5993800508b6b8b11/frameset.htm], see example [here|http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/Snippets/ABAPCodePage+Conversions].</li>
<li>Replace the encoding markup for UTF-16 in the XML with a reference to UTF-8.</li>
<li>Write the XML content back to a file using [OPEN DATASET file|http://help.sap.com/abapdocu_70/en/ABAPOPEN_DATASET.htm] FOR [OUTPUT|http://help.sap.com/abapdocu_70/en/ABAPOPEN_DATASET_ACCESS.htm] IN [TEXT MODE|http://help.sap.com/abapdocu_70/en/ABAPOPEN_DATASET_MODE.htm] [ENCODING UTF-8|http://help.sap.com/abapdocu_70/en/ABAPOPEN_DATASET_ENCODING.htm] and [TRANSFER|http://help.sap.com/abapdocu_70/en/ABAPTRANSFER.htm]</li></ol>
Maybe somebody has a shorter way...
Cheers, harald