Character Encoding for TM1 Object Names on UNIX and Windows Systems

The following guidelines are related to ensuring correct and consistent character encoding in your TM1® object names for objects such as cubes, views, dimensions, and subsets.

Moving TM1 Databases Between Windows and UNIX Systems

Do not manually move and use TM1 database files from a Microsoft Windows system to a UNIX system (or from UNIX to Windows) when your TM1 object names contain non-ASCII characters (characters beyond the original 128 ASCII character set).

Manually moving files is an issue because of the possible incompatible character encoding or mapping between these two platforms. The Windows operating system stores directory and file names in UTF-16 character encoding, while the UNIX operating system can store names using different character encodings, depending on which locale is currently being used.

For example, TM1 object names for cubes and dimensions that include non-ASCII characters would not display correctly in TM1 client applications if the TM1 database files were copied from one platform and run on another where different character encoding is used.

Instead of manually moving files, use the tm1xfer utility to move TM1 data between different platforms.

Use the tm1xfer utility

The tm1xfer utility compresses and moves TM1 server objects from one platform to another platform while preserving mixed case names for objects on both Microsoft Windows and UNIX platforms. For more information, see the tm1xfer topic in TM1 Operations.

Use the same locale as the UNIX system when starting a TM1 Server with non-ASCII characters in the name

If your TM1 object names (for cubes, views, dimensions, subsets, etc.) include non-ASCII characters, use the same locale when starting up a TM1 Server on a UNIX system.

This ensures that TM1 object names and the related TM1 directory and file names on the UNIX system always use the same character encoding. Starting the TM1 Server under a different locale than previously used could cause TM1 object names to display incorrectly if the names were originally created and stored in a different locale.

For example, TM1 object names for cubes and dimensions that are saved when the server is running under the en_US locale might not display correctly if the server is re-started using the ja_JP locale.