Oracle Database 10g Developer 6i Settings For Arabic Urdu Support Work May 2026

Bridging the Legacy Gap: Configuring Oracle 10g & Developer 6i for Arabic/Urdu Support

If you are reading this, you are likely wrestling with a specific, somewhat legacy challenge: getting a system running Oracle Database 10g on the backend and Oracle Developer 6i (Forms & Reports) on the frontend to play nice with Arabic or Urdu data.

It is a common scenario in many established enterprises. Developer 6i is a robust tool that refuses to die, but it was built in an era where Unicode support wasn't the standard default. Getting your forms to display Right-to-Left (RTL) text correctly—and ensuring that data stored in the database is retrievable without turning into "gibberish"—requires a specific set of configurations.

In this guide, we will walk through the essential settings to achieve seamless bi-directional (Bi-Di) support. Bridging the Legacy Gap: Configuring Oracle 10g &

2.1 Choose the Correct Database Character Set

When creating the database, select:

Character set: AR8MSWIN1256
National character set: AL16UTF16 (optional, for NCHAR/NVARCHAR2)

Why?
Developer 6i client cannot handle UTF8 reliably for bidirectional text. AR8MSWIN1256 supports Arabic, Persian, and Urdu characters (except a few rare Urdu letters – those can be stored as HTML entities or using AL32UTF8 but will appear broken in 6i). Open the Windows Registry ( regedit )

Step 2: Registry Settings (The NLS_LANG Key)

This is the most critical step. The Oracle Client (used by Developer 6i) needs to know how to interpret the bytes it receives from the database.

1. Open the Windows Registry (regedit).
2. Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE -> SOFTWARE -> ORACLE -> KEY_DevSuiteHome (or your specific Oracle Home name for Developer 6i).
3. Locate the string value NLS_LANG.

The Setting: For Arabic/Urdu support with Developer 6i, set the value to: For Reports 6i:

ARABIC_UNITED ARAB EMIRATES.AR8MSWIN1256

Why this specific string?

• Language (ARABIC): Tells the client to use Arabic locale conventions (like day/month names).
• Territory (UNITED ARAB EMIRATES): Sets defaults for date formats, currency, etc. (You can use SAUDI ARABIA or others depending on your region).
• Character Set (AR8MSWIN1256): This must match the database character set. If your database is AR8MSWIN1256, the client and server speak the same language.

Step 2: Create a Unicode Database (If Needed)

For a fresh database optimized for Arabic/Urdu:

CREATE DATABASE arabic_urdu_db
CHARACTER SET AL32UTF8
NATIONAL CHARACTER SET AL16UTF16
...

1. Oracle Database 10g – Server-Side Settings

6) Reports (Reports 6i / BI Publisher)

• For Reports 6i:
  • Use fonts supporting Arabic/Urdu in layout templates.
  • Generate output as PDF with embedded fonts to preserve display.
• For advanced shaping or Nastaleeq rendering in PDFs, consider generating PDF via a modern engine that supports complex text layout (CTL) if Reports 6i fails to shape properly.