NLS/MLS In Oracle Apps

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

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

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

MLS enabled applications store the seeded data in both the base language and the translated language. Also most of the applications integrated with Oracle Apps are MLS supported.

We can check the base and installed languages in our oracle Applications by querying the table FND_LANGUAGES as shown below.

SELECT LANGUAGE_SHORT_NAME, INSTALLED_FLAG

FROM FND_LANGUAGES; 

Our base language would be represented with the 'B' flag and other installed language with 'I' Flag.

Before we implement NLS/MLS it is important for us to make sure that our database character set will support the additional language.

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

We may install the additional language during the Oracle Applications installation, then we would have to stage the NLS software along with the Oracle Applications Software or we may add an additional language after the installation of Oracle Applications. We must have to apply translations patch of the additional language that we have applied after the installation of Oracle Applications.

If we are planning to install the language after the installation of Oracle Applications, it includes a series of steps like Licensing language, updating multilingual tables and using auto patch to install the NLS patch.

At the database level once NLS/MLS is implemented, Oracle Applications stores language specific information/attributes in a separate table, know as the translation table, where the language independent attributes are stored in the base table. So, it is important to consider additional space requirements as the database size may increase considerably.

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

If we want to print from Oracle Applications while using UTF8 to support NLS/MLS, we have to 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 also various seed printer drivers that can be used with PSATA printing like PASTA_LANDSCAPE, PASTA_PORTRAIT, PASTA_LANDWIDE and PASTA_DYNAMIC.

When we apply patches on an NLS/MLS environment, we have to first apply the base language patch immediately followed by the translation patches of the other installed languages.