NLS/MLS in Oracle Applications.

With the globalization of business the NLS/MLS feature in Oracle Applications has come into use quite extensively.

NLS (National Language Support) refers to the ability to run an Oracle Applications instance in any one of the supported languages other than American English.

This includes the user Interface that is the customer facing forms reports etc.

The base langue (that’s is the underlying logic for the instance)continues to remain American English, though this can also be changed.

MLS (Multi Language Support)should not be confused to be different from NLS it is infact an extension of NLS. MLS refers to the ability to run a single instance of Oracle Applications in more than one supported language apart for the American English.

MLS enabled applications store the seeded data in both the base language and the translated language.

Also most applications with Oracle Applications are MLS supported.

You can check the base and installed languages of your oracle Applications by querying the table FND_LANGUAGES.

Your base language will be represented with the 'B' flag and other installed language with 'I' Flag.

>SELECT LANGUAGE_SHORT_NAME, INSTALLED_FLAG
FROM FND_LANGUAGES

Before implementing NLS/MLS it is important to make sure that your database character set will support your additional language.

The metalink note 333785.1 contains a table of all the supported languages and the langues that are planned to be supported along with their supported database character sets.

If you are implementing multiple languages or planning to install additional languages you can choose UTF8 as your database character set.

You can install the additional language during the installation of Oracle Applications (in this case you would have to stage the NLS software along with the Oracle Applications Software) or you can add an additional language after you have setup and installed Oracle Applications. You should must however apply translations for any paths that you may have applied after the installation of Oracle Applications and before the implementation of the additional language.

If you are installing the language after the installation of Oracle Applications it includes a series of steps starting from Licensing your language, updating your multilingual tables and using auto patch to install the NLS patch.

NLS release notes for 11.5.10.2(215868.1) contains the details steps of installing additional languages

At the database level once NLS/MLS is implemented Oracle Applications stores language specific attributes in a separate table know as the translation table, where as the language independent attributes are stored in the base table. As a result it is important to consider additional space requirements as far as the database sizing is considered before implementing NLS/MLS

Oracle Applications currently does not support the uninstalling of the languages once they are installed. You can manually update the FND_LANGUAGES table, though this method is also not supported by Oracle.

To print from Oracle Applications while using UTF8 to support NLS/MLS you must use PASTA (FNDPSTAX) utility which is shipped with Oracle Applications. This uses the pasta.cfg file for various print options.The file is located at $FND_TOP/resource.

There are various seed printer drivers that can used with PSATA printing like PASTA_LANDSCAPE, PASTA_PORTRAIT, PASTA_LANDWIDE and PASTA_DYNAMIC.

When applying patches on an NLS/MLS environment you must first apply the base language patch immediately followed by the translation patches of the other installed languages.