Complex Scripts* in Internet Explorer 5.0

Complex Scripts* in Internet Explorer 5.0 *and Multilingual text F. Avery Bishop Senior Program Manager Microsoft Corporation

Agenda: Using Complex Scripts such as Arabic in Web pages • Single Binary Internet Explorer 5.0 • UTF-8: Recommended encoding for multilingual HTML design • Font embedding for universal display of Arabic pages • Displaying Arabic pages with dynamic HTML • Accessing Unicode data from web page with SQL Server 7.0

Internet Explorer 5.0 on Win32 Platforms • Displays complex scripts (e.g., Arabic) on all language platforms • Supports complex scripts in Document Object Model

Encodings for Multi-lingual Text in Web Pages • Raw Unicode • OK for intranet on Windows NT networks • Not good for internet pages • Number entities, e.g., &#2325 • OK for occasional use, e.g., inserting characters not in the main script of page • Not good for large documents • UTF-8 – Recommended encoding • Works just about everywhere • Supported by IE 4.0+, Netscape 4.0+

Creating UTF-8 Webpages • Use charset=UTF-8 in META tag • Save HTML page as UTF-8 using notepad, Word, etc. • Saving as UTF-8 in Word: • Select File/Save As WebPage/Tools • Select Web Options/Encoding • Change charset designation to UTF-8

Embedded Fonts in Web Pages • Downloadable fonts used only in web pages • Deleted when page is closed • WEFT tool • Creates embedded font from TTF file • Saves download time/space by using only those glyphs required for the page • On Microsoft website, see workshop/author/fontembed/font_embed.asp

Introduction to DHTML • Based on Document Object Model • Objects in HTML document • Text in objects including titles, headers, etc • Attributes such as font, color, etc • Are accessible via scripts, e.g., JScript or VBScript • Supported in IE 4.0+ • See various documents under www.microsoft.com/workshop/author for overview

Examples of DHTML <H1 id=Head1 style=“font-weight: normal” onmouseover = “makeitalic() ;” onmouseout = “makenormal() ;” > Sample Dynamic HTML </H1> <script language=JavaScript> function makeItalic() { Head1.style.fontstyle = “Italic” ; } function makeNormal() { Head1.style.fontstyle = “Normal” ; } </script> Heading tag Jscript functions that change style of heading text

Using BiDi Text (e.g., Arabic and Hebrew) in DHTML • Use same design rules as static HTML • Mark encoding with charset value • Encode in UTF-8 or an Arabic or Hebrew charset • Use embedded fonts if needed • Use DIR attribute inside tags: • HTML: <HTML DIR=“RTL”> • DHTML object: document.dir = "RTL"

Unicode Support in SQL Server 7.0 • Unicode datatypes in SQL Server 7.0 • NCHAR • NVARCHAR • NTEXT • Indicate Unicode text by N’text’, in SQL queries: create table myTable (col1 CHAR(8), col2 NCHAR(8)) insert into myTable (col1,col2) (‘Japan’, N‘日本') • Utilities for entering/retrieving Unicode data: • Query Analyzer • Data Transformation Services • Client application using ODBC

Accessing SQL Server 7.0 Unicode Data through ASP Webpages • Use standard encodings: • UTF-8 in web pages • Unicode in SQL Server 7.0 • Access data through Jscript/ODBC • Jscript automatically translates Unicode to current codepage in web page • Defaults to system codepage • Specify UTF-8 “codepage” using: • <%Session.CodePage=65001%> // Scope=session • <%@CODEPAGE=65001%> // Scope=page

Demo!

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Complex Scripts* in Internet Explorer 5.0