Introduction : Strings and Character Encodings

Strings and Character Encodings
C programs represent strings within messages as byte arrays. Before sending an outbound message, EMS programs translate strings to their byte representation using an encoding, which the program specifies. Conversely, when EMS programs receive inbound messages, they reconstruct strings from byte arrays using the same encoding.
When a program specifies an encoding, it applies to all strings in message bodies (names and values), and properties (names and values). It does not apply to header names nor values. The function tibemsBytesMsg_WriteUTF always uses UTF-8 as its encoding.
For a list of standard encoding names, see www.iana.org.
Outbound Messages
C programs can determine the encoding of strings in outbound messages in two ways:
 
Inbound Messages
An inbound message from another EMS client contains its encoding type, so the receiving client can properly decode strings inside the message.
Character Limits for Connection URLs
Connection URLs are limited to a length of 1000 characters. Note that this limit pertains to the C client library, as well as the administration tool and the factories.conf configuration file.
IBM Mainframe—COBOL and C
In EBCDIC environments, the EMS client library automatically converts message strings. To client programs, all strings appear in the host code page. On the network, all strings appear in the network host page. For details, see tibems_SetCodePages() on page 533.