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
text	Extended ASCII	No	No	No
unicode	UTF-8	Yes (as UTF-16 and P4CHARSET)	Yes	No
utf16	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
text	Extended ASCII	No	No	No
unicode	UTF-8	Yes (as UTF-16 and P4CHARSET)	No	No
utf16	UTF-8	Yes (as UTF-16)	No	Yes