i5/OS™ globalization

The iSeries™ server is designed to support the culture and languages of many countries around the world. As companies integrate e-commerce on a global scale into their fundamental business processes, their prospective customers, established customers, and active partners can take advantage of increased revenue and decreased expenses through software globalization.

Globalizing your e-business is no longer a luxury; it is a necessity. As the Internet transcends national and geographical boundaries, the concept of doing business within a single country is quickly giving way to the need to compete in an international marketplace.

Globalized software gives you the following advantages:

• Increased customer satisfaction that can increase sales
• Enhanced customer support communications
• Enhanced global information dissemination
• A better return on Information Technology (IT) investments

This information shows you how to:

• Create an application efficiently and at minimal expense.
• Retrofit existing applications for globalization and create new applications designed for globalization. Designing an application for globalization, however, is usually less expensive than retrofitting an existing application.
• Ensure that the application design does not interfere with the current or planned design of other internationalized applications.

These pages provide a single source for the information you need to build applications for national and international audiences. You can find out more information at the IBM^® Globalizing your e-business Web site (http://www.ibm.com/software/globalization/index.jsp) and the iSeries Globalization Web site (http://www.ibm.com/servers/eserver/iseries/software/globalization/).

Note: By using the code examples, you agree to the terms of the Code license and disclaimer information.

• What's new for V5R4
  This topic highlights changes for V5R4.
• Printable PDF
  Use this to view and print a PDF of this information.
• Globalization overview
  This topic describes the way that globalization has been implemented on i5/OS™, including topics that describe globalization-specific values on the system and topics that describe how services and functions in i5/OS™ support globalization.
• Set up i5/OS with a national language version
  This topic describes the steps you need to take to properly install and configure a national language version on i5/OS™, with topics ranging from selecting and installing hardware, installing software, and configuring your environment to run in a globalized setting.
• Develop globalized applications
  Here are some guidelines for designing, developing, and delivering globalized applications in this topic.
• Handle data in globalized applications
  There are ways in which the operating system enables you to handle data in a globalized environment. These topics describe Unicode and Unicode data, the Chinese standard GB18030, how to use CCSIDs to integrate multiple language environments consistently, and how to use bidirectional data, DBCS data, and locales.
• Globalization reference information
  This topic provides a comprehensive collection of supporting information about the concepts and tasks described in the Globalization category.
• Globalization checklists
  This topic provides links to the numerous checklists that are presented within the globalization topics.
• Related information for i5/OS globalization
  Listed here are the product manuals (in PDF format), Web sites, and information center topics that relate to the i5/OS™ globalization topic. You can view or print any of the PDFs.