You can use multi-byte characters in every configuration OpenEdge supports, including client/server and batch. You are limited only by the multi-byte support provided by individual OpenEdge products.

Multi-byte characters are supported by the majority of OpenEdge products. The following table lists each OpenEdge product and the multi-byte support it provides.

Table 1. Support for multi-byte characters
Product Multi-byte support
AppBuilder The AppBuilder—except for the Character Run window—supports double-byte and UTF-8 characters.Widgets created with the AppBuilder can have double-byte or UTF-8 characters in labels and in text.The Character Run window does not support double-byte or UTF-8 characters.
PAS for OpenEdge PAS for OpenEdge supports double-byte and UTF-8 characters.
Application Compiler The Application Compiler supports double-byte and UTF-8 characters. That is, the ABL source code that the Application Compiler compiles can contain double-byte and UTF-8 characters, and the resulting r-code supports double-byte and UTF-8 characters.
Progress Developer Studio for OpenEdge The Progress Developer Studio for OpenEdge supports double-byte and UTF-8 characters.
Clients (graphical, character, and batch) The graphical client supports double-byte characters and UTF-8 characters.The UNIX character client supports double-byte characters but not UTF-8 characters.The Windows character client does not support multi-byte characters.The batch client (started with the command prowin32 -b) supports multi-byte characters.
Data Dictionary The OpenEdge Data Dictionary supports multi-byte characters.
DataServers The DataServer for Oracle supports double-byte and UTF-8 characters if Oracle Database is set up for Native Language Support (NLS). For more information about NLS, see the Oracle documentation.
HLC Applications An HLC program can have double-byte and triple-byte characters. Because the AVM does not validate strings from HLC programs, you must ensure that multi-byte characters are formed correctly and that they are not split. For example, the AVM searches each character string for the NULL terminator. For each multi-byte character in the string, the AVM searches only the lead byte. If the string ends in a multi-byte character and the NULL terminator resides (mistakenly) in a byte other than the position for a lead byte, the AVM misses it and does not detect the end of the string correctly.
Procedure Editor On Windows, the Procedure Editor supports double-byte and UTF-8 characters. On UNIX, only double-byte characters are supported. To write a multi-byte ABL application, you can use any text editor that supports multi-byte characters. That is, you can use a multi-byte Unicode editor if you prefer.
Report Builder The Report Builder does not support double-byte or UTF-8 characters.
SQL SQL supports double-byte and UTF-8 characters.
Web Client Web Client supports double-byte characters and UTF-8 characters.
WebSpeed WebSpeed fully supports multi-byte characters.