Problem printing simplified Chinese on PM4i printer using multi-byte data

Question

I am new to printing data in Simplified Chinese and have tried for a period of time to get it to work but it is not working. I would appreciate any help.
This is what I have:
1. Chinese data stored as multi-byte data in oracle 10g db. It is in one of the attribute fields on the mtl_system_items table. The data field it is stored in is defined as varchar2(240). I have to extract that data and print it out as simplified Chinese characters on 3x4 label stock on PM4i printer which is setup to use IPL as the default language.
2. Purchased the simplified Chinese font kit ( compact flash card ) and plugged it into the compact flash port on back of the printer. The simplified Chinese font is assigned.
3. Created simple program to build the label file to send to the printer to print the Chinese glyphs. I expected 3 to print but it only prints 1 Chinese glyph and that is not the correct.
a. Data shown in Chinese
传感器
b. Data in hex format => E4BCA0E6849FE599A8
c. Data in utf8 => ä¼ æ„Ÿå™¨
d. Simple oracle pl/sql program code to extract data from oracle and create the format file for printing
CREATE OR REPLACE PROCEDURE china_test_label1 is
hold_length number;
v_hold_armpart varchar2(240):= null;
v_hold_line varchar2(500);
v_file_name varchar2(100) := 'chlabel1.txt';
v_file_line1 varchar2(100) := '<STX><ESC>C<ETX>';
v_file_line2 varchar2(100) := '<STX><ESC>P<ETX>';
v_file_line3 varchar2(100) := '<STX>E4;F4;<ETX>';
v_file_line4 varchar2(100) := '<STX>H00;o0200,0200;c60;k32;d0,30;<ETX>';
v_file_line5 varchar2(100) := '<STX>L1;o102,102;f0;l575;w5;<ETX>';
v_file_line6 varchar2(100) := '<STX>R<ETX>';
v_file_line7 varchar2(100) := '<STX><ESC>E4<CAN><ETX>';
v_file_line8 varchar2(100) := '<STX><ETB><ETX>';
v_file_line varchar2(500);
v_file_handle UTL_FILE.file_type;
v_submit_status number;
v_out_path_name varchar2(50);
v_export_path_name varchar2(50);
-- Program Starts Here
BEGIN
fnd_file.put_line(fnd_file.log, '------- Starting Label job -------');
SELECT description
INTO v_out_path_name
FROM fnd_lookup_values
WHERE lookup_type = 'ARM_DATA_FILE_OUT_PATH'
AND lookup_code = '$FLMARM_TOP';
v_file_handle := utl_file.fopen(v_out_path_name, v_file_name, 'W');
v_file_line := v_file_line1;
utl_file.put_line(v_file_handle, v_file_line);
v_file_line := v_file_line2;
utl_file.put_line(v_file_handle, v_file_line);
v_file_line := v_file_line3;
utl_file.put_line(v_file_handle, v_file_line);
v_file_line := v_file_line4;
utl_file.put_line(v_file_handle, v_file_line);
v_file_line := v_file_line5;
utl_file.put_line(v_file_handle, v_file_line);
v_file_line := v_file_line6;
utl_file.put_line(v_file_handle, v_file_line);
v_file_line := v_file_line7;
utl_file.put_line(v_file_handle, v_file_line);
BEGIN
select attribute13
INTO v_hold_armpart
FROM apps.mtl_system_items
WHERE segment1 = '20928536'
AND organization_id = 282;
EXCEPTION
WHEN others THEN
v_hold_armpart := 'nothing';
END;
v_file_line := '<STX>'||v_hold_armpart||'<CR><ETX>';
utl_file.put_line(v_file_handle, v_file_line);
v_file_line := v_file_line8;
utl_file.put_line(v_file_handle, v_file_line);
utl_file.fclose(v_file_handle);
fnd_file.put_line(fnd_file.log, '-------------------------------------------');
fnd_file.put_line(fnd_file.log, '-- end of job ');
fnd_file.put_line(fnd_file.log, '-------------------------------------------');
END china_test_label1;
show errors;
e. i do lpr -P printer filename to print the file. here is the file contents :
<STX><ESC>C<ETX>
<STX><ESC>P<ETX>
<STX>E4;F4;<ETX>
<STX>H00;o0200,0200;c60;k32;d0,30;<ETX>
<STX>L1;o102,102;f0;l575;w5;<ETX>
<STX>R<ETX>
<STX><ESC>E4<CAN><ETX>
<STX>ä¼ æ„Ÿå™¨<CR><ETX>
<STX><ETB><ETX>
i think the issue here may be with formating the mulit-byte data into format it can be printed using the c60 font. Any
coding examples would be greatly appreciated

Answer 1

Hi,
Welcome you post on the forum.
However, this is not the right forum for you. It is only for SAP Business One user. Please search entire forums first to find which one is more proper.
However, this issue may not be related to SAP at all. Search on the web would be better.
Thanks,
Gordon