Choosing the file type
When assigning file types to textual files that contain Unicode, consider the following:
-
Do you need to edit and diff the files?
Many IDEs create configuration files that you never edit manually or diff. To ensure they are never translated, assign such files the
binary
file type. -
Is your site managing files that use different character sets?
If so, consider storing them using a
utf16
file type, to ensure they are not translated but still can be diffed.
Unicode mode services translate the contents of Unicode files into the
character set specified by P4CHARSET
. The following table
provides more details about how Unicode-mode services manage the various
types of text files:
Text file type | Stored by Helix Server as (Unicode mode) | Validated? | Translated per
P4CHARSET ? |
Translated per client platform |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Extended ASCII |
No |
No |
No |
|
UTF-8 |
Yes (as UTF-16 and |
Yes |
No |
|
UTF-8 |
Yes (as UTF-16) |
No |
No |
Non-Unicode-mode services do not translate or verify the contents of
unicode
files. Instead, the UTF-8 data is converted to
UTF-16 using the byte order appropriate to the client platform. To ensure
that such files are not corrupted when you edit them, save them as UTF-8
or UTF-16 from within your editing software.
Text file type | Stored by Helix Server as (Unicode mode) | Validated? | Translated per
P4CHARSET ? |
Translated per client platform |
---|---|---|---|---|
|
Extended ASCII |
No |
No |
No |
|
UTF-8 |
Yes (as UTF-16 and |
No |
No |
|
UTF-8 |
Yes (as UTF-16) |
No |
Yes |