Encoding

There are two encoding options:

• Extended ASCII (8-bit encoding, default)

  In the Extended ASCII mode, all input streams are read as characters coded on one byte with 8-bit encoding. Characters with codes higher than 127 are interpreted as a Windows 1252 code page.

  Note: If a Unicode input is processed in the Extended ASCII mode, the connector replaces the characters coded on two or more bytes with question marks '?'.

• Unicode (UTF-8 encoding)

  With version 1.3, the connector has been enhanced to deal with the Unicode-based input encoded in UTF-8. In this mode, PI AF based objects, such as elements, event frames, and their attributes, can be created and updated so that they accommodate international characters

  Note: In Unicode mode, input streams which contain plain English text, that is, ASCII characters coded on the interval <1,127>, do not make a difference because UTF-8 encoding is backward compatible with ASCII. The INI logic itself cannot contain any Unicode characters.

  When the connector is set up to operate in Unicode mode, there are several limitations because neither the INI logic nor PI point names can contain characters encoded on more than one byte. PI points and their attributes can only accommodate ASCII characters. Hence, the StoreEvent() function, when provided with a tag name containing Unicode characters, forwards a modified tag name to PI Data Archive. The connector's modification logic replaces Unicode characters with the string representation of the individual hexadecimal codes prefixed by U+. For example: Strings encoded in UTF-8 that are forwarded to Data Archive through the StoreEvent() function will have the following PI tag name(s):

  UTF-8 based input	PI tag name
  Größe1	GrU+00F6U+00DFe1
  газ в зоне 1	U+0433U+0430U+0437 U+0432 U+0437U+043EU+043DU+0435 1