Codepage-independent binary encoding method

1. A method of processing binary data for transmission from a first computing system to one or more other computing systems within a character-based data file, the method comprising:

receiving, at the first computing system, a binary data string to be stored within the character-based data file, wherein at least a portion of the binary data string represents data other than character data;

encoding, using an encoding module of the first computing system the binary data string using a codepage-independent encoding scheme, wherein the encoding module is implemented using instructions that are executable by one or more processors and stored in one or more non-transitory computer-readable media; and

storing the encoded binary data string in one or more of a plurality of data segments of the character-based data file, wherein the character-based data file is configured such that all data stored in the plurality of data segments is indicated as representing character data.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the codepage-independent encoding scheme is a Base64 encoding scheme.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising transmitting the character-based data file containing the encoded binary data string from the first computing system to a second computing system.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein each data segment has associated therewith a maximum length of data it may store, wherein storing the encoded binary data string in one or more of a plurality of data segments of the character-based data file comprises separating the encoded binary data string into a plurality of encoded binary data substrings and storing each of the encoded binary data substrings in a separate data segment.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the character-based data file is an SAP IDoc.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the character-based data file comprises at least one data segment that contains data representing character data.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the character-based data file is configured such that each byte stored in the data segments is interpreted as a single character.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of data segments includes a segment type configured to identify a format of the data segment.

9. A system for processing binary data received at a computing system within a character-based data file, the system comprising:

one or more processors; and

one or more non-transitory computer-readable media having instructions stored thereon, the instructions being executable by the one or more processors to implement a method comprising:

receiving the character-based data file, the character-based file having a plurality of data segments, wherein the character-based data file is configured such that all data stored in the plurality of data segments is interpreted by the computing system to represent character data;

retrieving an encoded binary data string from at least one of the plurality of data segments, the encoded binary data string being encoded using a codepage-independent encoding scheme; and

decoding the encoded binary data string using the codepage-independent encoding scheme, wherein at least a portion of the unencoded binary data string represents data other than character data.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein the codepage-independent encoding scheme is a Base64 encoding scheme.

11. The system product of claim 9 , wherein the method further comprises storing the unencoded binary data string in a memory of the computing system.

12. The system of claim 9 , wherein each data segment has associated therewith a maximum length of data it may store, wherein retrieving the encoded binary data string from at least one of the plurality of data segments comprises retrieving a plurality of encoded binary data substrings from two or more of the plurality of data segments and concatenating the encoded binary data substrings to form the encoded binary data string.

13. The system of claim 9 , wherein the character-based data file is an SAP IDoc.

14. The system of claim 9 , wherein the character-based data file is configured such that the computing system interprets each byte stored in the data segments as a single character.

15. The system of claim 9 , wherein each of the plurality of data segments includes a segment type configured to identify a format of the data segment.

16. A program product comprising one or more non-transitory computer-readable media having instructions stored thereon, the instructions being executable by one or more processors to implement a method of processing binary data for transmission from a first computing system to one or more other computing systems within a character-based data file, the method comprising:

receiving a binary data string to be stored within the character-based data file, wherein at least a portion of the binary data string represents data other than character data;

encoding the binary data string using a Base64 encoding scheme;

separating the Base64-encoded binary data string into a plurality of Base64-encoded binary data substrings based on a maximum length associated with each of a plurality of data segments of the character-based data file; and

storing each Base64-encoded binary data substring in one of the data segments, wherein the character-based data file is configured such that all data stored in the plurality of data segments is indicated as representing character data, wherein each of the plurality of data segments includes a segment type configured to identify a format of the data segment.

17. The program product of claim 16 , wherein the method further comprises transmitting the character-based data file containing the Base64-encoded binary data substrings from the first computing system to a second computing system.

18. The program product of claim 16 , wherein the character-based data file is an SAP IDoc.

19. The program product of claim 16 , wherein the character-based data file comprises at least one data segment that contains data representing character data.

20. The program product of claim 16 , wherein the character-based data file is configured such that the each byte stored in the data segments is interpreted as a single character.