Regional Setting changing "True" to "Vrai" in France

Question

Portal 5.0.2, classic ASP. Our report is based on several boolean parameters. The form is submitted by a VBScript function which sets the parameters to a boolean to true or false. Our French users are receiving errors when this function is called - according the POST data in the error page, the "true" has become "vrai" - which it sees as a string. We did not have this problem before 5.0.2, I'm not sure where to start with this one. Will my german users also see "wahr" and "unwahr"?
Wendy RamsaurKSA

Answer 1

A boolean variable will have the value true or false. That value only becomes a string when there is a conversion from boolean to string. For example, the following VBScript code converts a boolean to a string:
Dim bVBBoolDim strVBBoolbVBBool = truestrVBBool = CStr(bVBBool)
or this Javsscript code which converts a boolean to a string:
var bBool = new Boolean(1);var strBool = bBool.toString();
In VBScript, the assumption is that you are converting the boolean to a string for the purpose of displaying the value to an end user. So it attempts to "display" the value in the most suitable way for the end user. In the localized French IE, VBScript will convert the booleanvalue true to the string"vrai".
If you call a VBScript function passing a boolean value on the same page, then the boolean will never be converted to a string and there will be no problem. When you try to pass a boolean value back to the server through a form parameter, that value must be converted to a string since that is the only way to send the value over Http. The best solution is to realize that there could be conversion error and pass an integer instead of a boolean. You might also have a similar problem if you were passing a datetime value. A datetime value internally is just a number. But if you try to pass it as a form parameter, then it will be converted to a string (and formatted according to some locale). The best bet is to proactively format in a locale neutral fashion so that the server will always know how to interpret the datetime regardless of the version of IE or the locale of the user.