Maximum number of characters for a BPEL string variable

Question

Hi,
What is the maximum numbers of characters that a string variable in BPEL process can hold??.
Is there any document which describes the datatypes in BPEL.
Regards
V Kumar

Answer 1

Trick question - with or without the use of the FM GUI?
1. Via the FM interface to define a variable, FM will only save the first 1022 characters of your variable definition - if you dare try to enter that many via the GUI dialogue slot.
2. Importing a variable via MIF, adds virtually any length - I've tested out 2510 characters. HOWEVER, FM will only display the first 1023 characters of this string.
If you save the file to MIF, you can still see the original length of the variable. The other caveat is that if you touch any of these long variables via the FM GUI (Edit Variables), then FM will truncate it down to 1022 characters - regardless of how you save (binary or MIF).
FWIW - Klaus Daube lists (see: http://daube.ch/docu/fmaker25.html ):
Until FM 7.2: up to 255 characters including meta-notations (such as <Default ¶ Font> or \t - this counts as 16 resp. 2 characters). See also note Variables below
From FM 8.0: up to 2023 Windows Codepage characters or up to 2022 UTF-8 characters
I'd say that this is not quite correct. You could enter more than 255 prior to FM 7.2 as well, but again the display issue via the GUI kicked in and truncated down to 255. The newer versions only display 1022/1023 but you can enter more than 2510 characters (which in this case is futile anyway).