How to control bracket and parentheses appearance in right to left display of web Presenter: Yoel Kortick

Directionality Solution 2 Copyright Statement All of the information and material inclusive of text, images, logos, product names is either the property of, or used with permission by Ex Libris Ltd. The information may not be distributed, modified, displayed, reproduced – in whole or in part – without the prior written permission of Ex Libris Ltd. TRADEMARKS Ex Libris, the Ex Libris logo, ALEPH 500, SFX, SFXIT, MetaLib, DigiTool, Verde, Primo, Voyager, Journals Onsite, MetaSearch, MetaIndex and other Ex Libris products and services referenced herein are trademarks of Ex Libris, and may be registered in certain jurisdictions. All other product names, company names, marks and logos referenced may be trademarks of their respective owners. DISCLAIMER The information contained in this document is compiled from various sources and provided on an "AS IS" basis for general information purposes only without any representations, conditions or warranties whether express or implied, including any implied warranties of satisfactory quality, completeness, accuracy or fitness for a particular purpose. Ex Libris, its subsidiaries and related corporations (the "Ex Libris Group") disclaim any and all liability for all use of this information, including losses, damages, claims or expenses any person may incur as a result of the use of this information, even if advised of the possibility of such loss or damage. © Ex Libris Ltd., 2007

Directionality Solution 3 Introduction and background When viewing this presentation the user should also see the accompanying file titled “How to add special Unicode characters to cataloging records via the GUI”.

Directionality Solution 4 Introduction and background A possible solution to the directionality issues in right-to-left and left-to-right fields (as viewed in right-to-left and left-to-right web interfaces) has been to add a UTF character which is not be seen by the end user and controls the appearance of the field. As is standard policy before any addition or change is made to ALEPH, extensive testing has been conducted and it has been found that including UTF directional characters in ALEPH data has no adverse side effects.

Directionality Solution 5 Introduction and background Further, it was discovered that RLG (Research Libraries Group uses UTF characters to control directionality in Hebrew fields. What UTF character RLG uses is not of importance here, but rather that a well known supplier of bibliographic records has adopted to policy manipulate directionality through the addition of directionality-related UTF characters RLG discusses the uses of these UTF values on their web page at

Directionality Solution 6 Introduction and background RLG states the following: In the UTF-8 file, record DCLN04-B1278 and DCLN06-B26 show use of the Unicode formatting character U+200F (RIGHT-TO-LEFT MARK, RLM) before and after the subfield markers in any field that a cataloger designated as having right-to-left orientation. RLG found that this use of RLM makes the subfield delimiter mark appear before the subfield code, reading right to left, as is appropriate in a right-to-left oriented field.

Directionality Solution 7 Introduction and background RLG also states the following: RLG has supplied the RLM formatting character for its own internal needs. If there is a wider need in the MARC 21 exchange environment for that character, RLG could investigate the option of supplying it in all UTF-8 export.

Directionality Solution 8 History It was discovered that when copying records from RLG which have directionality-related UTF characters the GUI would crash. Further, the GUI would crash when adding these directionality-related UTF characters in the ALEPH editing mode. This was originally reported and investigated in Support Incident

Directionality Solution 9 History The development department of Ex Libris did extensive tests and investigations of the issue and made new dll files to prevent the GUI crash when editing records Internal note: The new dll files are located internally at: L:\Yoel\DLLs_for_directionality

Directionality Solution 10 The dll files The dll files which are necessary to enable the GUI to edit records with directionality-related UTF characters are: Log2Vis.dll UniCtype.dll These files should be copied on PC to the windows system directory. This is often: C:\WINDOWS\system32 These files are part of GUI installation, and in the future these new versions will be included instead of the current ones

Directionality Solution 11 Method In this presentation we will enter various examples of problematic fields and use various UTF characters to show the influence they have We will view fields in full view of record as well as in list of headings At the end of the examples we will present our summary, conclusion and suggestion for solving what may be termed “The Hebrew directionality issue”

Directionality Solution 12 Method Examples will be done on ICC test server. This is because we need to view right-to-left and left- to-right web interfaces. The web may be accessed at The GUI may be accessed at L:\Yoel\GUIs\AL500_ICC User/Pass: USMYOEL/EURYHE) If you use the GUI make sure you have the DLL files previously mentioned here in the windows system directory.

Directionality Solution 13 Example One This example is system number It has a title entered in Latin characters with ALPHA L (GUI direction left-to-right) and includes brackets. There are no special directionality-related UTF characters

Directionality Solution 14 Example One The headings list in web left-to-right interface is fine, in right-to-left interface it is problematic

Directionality Solution 15 Example One The full view in web left-to-right interface is fine, in right-to-left interface it is problematic

Directionality Solution 16 Example Two This example is system number It is like example one but it has directionality-related UTF character 202A at beginning of 245 field

Directionality Solution 17 Example Two To see how the UTF directionality-related character was added see the accompanying file titled “How to add special Unicode characters to cataloging records via the GUI”.

Directionality Solution 18 Example Two The headings list in web left-to-right interface is fine, in right-to-left interface it is also fine. 202A fixed the problem.

Directionality Solution 19 Example Two The full view in web left-to-right interface is fine, in right-to-left interface it is also fine. 202A fixed the problem.

Directionality Solution 20 Example Three This example is system number It has a title entered in Hebrew characters with ALPHA H (GUI direction right to left) and includes brackets. There are no special directionality-related UTF characters

Directionality Solution 21 Example Three The headings list in web left-to-right interface is fine, in right-to-left interface it is fine

Directionality Solution 22 Example Three The full view in web left-to-right interface is fine, in right-to-left interface it is also fine

Directionality Solution 23 Example Four This example is system number It has a title entered in Latin characters with ALPHA L (GUI direction left-to-right) and includes two Hebrew words in the middle. There are no special directionality-related UTF characters

Directionality Solution 24 Example Four The headings list in web left-to-right interface is fine, in right-to-left interface it is problematic Wrong order

Directionality Solution 25 Example Four The full view in web left-to-right interface is fine, in right-to-left interface it problematic. Wrong order

Directionality Solution 26 Example Five This example is system number It is like example four but it has directionality-related UTF character 202A at beginning of 245 field

Directionality Solution 27 Example Five To see how the UTF directionality-related character system number was added see the accompanying file titled “How to add special Unicode characters to cataloging records via the GUI”.

Directionality Solution 28 Example Five The headings list in web left-to-right interface is fine, in right-to-left interface it is also fine. 202A fixed the problem. Correct order with 202A This bad one does not have 202A

Directionality Solution 29 Example Five The full view in web left-to-right interface is fine, in right-to-left interface it is also fine. 202A fixed the problem.

Directionality Solution 30 Example Six This example is system number It has a title entered in Hebrew characters with ALPHA H (GUI direction right to left) and includes two Latin character words in the middle. There are no special directionality-related UTF characters

Directionality Solution 31 Example Six The headings list in web left-to-right interface is fine, in right-to-left interface it is fine

Directionality Solution 32 Example Six The full view in web left-to-right interface is fine, in right-to-left interface it is also fine

Directionality Solution 33 Example Seven Here we have a call number with parentheses and Hebrew characters. It has been added to record in 090 field. It is in ALPHA L (GUI left-to-right direction) and has no special UTF characters. As it is catalogued we want it to appear: on left, (9) in middle and תשר on right

Directionality Solution 34 Example Seven The headings list in left-to-right and right-to-left interface problematic, not on left, (9) in middle and תשר on right Wrong order

Directionality Solution 35 Example Seven The web full view in left-to-right and right-to-left interface is problematic, not on left, (9) in middle and תשר on right Wrong order

Directionality Solution 36 Example Eight Here we have a call number with parentheses and Hebrew characters. It has been added to record in 090 field. It is in ALPHA L (GUI left-to-right direction) and has 202A special UTF characters. As it is catalogued we want it to appear: on left, (9) in middle and שרק on right 202A

Directionality Solution 37 Example Eight The headings list in left-to-right and right-to-left interface is fine: on left, (9) in middle and שרק on right. 202A fixed the problem.

Directionality Solution 38 Example Eight The web full view in left-to-right and right-to-left interface is fine: on left, (9) in middle and תשר on right 202A fixed the problem.

Directionality Solution 39 Summary There were three problematic cases when not using special UTF directionality-related characters: 1.Latin heading including brackets (example one) 2.Latin heading with Hebrew characters in the middle (example four) 3.Call number with parentheses and Hebrew (example seven)

Directionality Solution 40 Summary All three of the problematic cases were solved by adding the UTF directionality-related character 202A. Other similar issues not brought here are also solved via the UTF directionality-related character 202A (or other UTF directionality-related character). Ex Libris recommends that UTF directionality- related characters be added to documents when display in web is not as desired without them.

Directionality Solution 41 Summary In order that fields with and without special unicode characters will file together we must remove the unicode characters from the filing via the tab_filing table. For example: 11 N to_blank U+202AU+202BU+202CU+202DU+202E 11 N to_blank U+200EU+200FU+001E