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Double-byte special character encoding issues cause various features to fail like Business Automation Workflow snapshot deployment

Troubleshooting


Problem

Special characters in strings can lead to various issue in Workflow depending on your environment.

Symptom

For example, in an offline deployment you could see this error when a special character is used in the file name:
com.ibm.bpm.pal.PALException: Malformed input or input contains unmappable characters: \/tmp\/SpecialChar??App - v1.zip1234527351517156789
at com.ibm.bpm.pal.action.ProcessServerActionsImpl.offlineDeploy(ProcessServerActionsImpl.java:133)
at com.ibm.bpm.pal.commands.CommandServiceImpl.processServerOfflineDeploy(CommandServiceImpl.java:1988)
where the ?? in the application name is where a special character would have been.

Cause

For API calls or wsadmin commands the encoding of the client JVM or OS might not have the correct encoding.
Similar errors can also occur if the server JVMs aren't using the required UTF8 encoding (which should be correct by default).

Resolving The Problem

UTF8 encoding is required for Business Automation Workflow.
Ensure that any JVMs or operating systems are set to the UTF8 encoding that are involved in the operation. This may include operating systems for command line operations or client JVMs for API calls.

Document Location

Worldwide

[{"Type":"MASTER","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB10","label":"Data and AI"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU059","label":"IBM Software w\/o TPS"},"Product":{"code":"SS8JB4","label":"IBM Business Automation Workflow"},"ARM Category":[{"code":"a8m50000000CcYAAA0","label":"Application Management"}],"ARM Case Number":"","Platform":[{"code":"PF025","label":"Platform Independent"}],"Version":"All Versions"},{"Type":"MASTER","Line of Business":{"code":"LOB10","label":"Data and AI"},"Business Unit":{"code":"BU059","label":"IBM Software w\/o TPS"},"Product":{"code":"SSBYVB","label":"IBM Cloud Pak for Business Automation"},"ARM Category":[{"code":"a8m0z0000001iUTAAY","label":"Operate-\u003EBAW App Management"}],"Platform":[{"code":"PF025","label":"Platform Independent"}],"Version":"All Versions"}]

Document Information

Modified date:
06 February 2024

UID

ibm17054892

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