Expert: Srini Nagarajan - 1/9/2007

Question
i have my data stored in sql server 2000 in unicode encoding
i have been trying to create an application to display those data items on request on mobile devices.I have been told that mobile devices do not support unicode encoding but only utf8 encoding.For this reason i am thinking of two approaches:-

1. Change all the data stored in unicode format to utf8 in the sql server db itself?
Problems:--not sure if sql server 2000 recognises utf8 encoding and hence cant trust it with it.

2. convert those database items only that have been requested by the mobile devices to utf8 before displaying.

which approach do you think i should follow or if you can please suggest any other approach?

which language should i use for the mobile programming asp.net or j2me or.......etc.?i dont have prior knowledge of these languages and hence have to learn .which one would you recommend out of the many mobile development application languages availaible in the market?

OS:win 2000 server
DB:sql server 2000

Thank you

Answer
Hi

1. You can store the UTF-8 in sql server have a look at the following URL

    http://support.microsoft.com/kb/232580

2. convert the item on the fly will slow your application.

you can use .NET since you have Win 2000 server.  Also .NET have various readymade objects to handle with Mobile devices.

Hope this helps

Happy Programming!!

~Srini