TDMPortal resolves NOVLAUE and Empty variables to junk characters "�DM��DM�"

Products

• CA Test Data Manager (Data Finder / Grid Tools)

Issue/Introduction

TDM Portal cannot resolve the NOVALUE variable, as you can see in the imagine below:

Environment

TDM Portal Release: 4.X.XXX

Cause

It is the default notation for NULL in TDM that was created for Datamaker and has been migrated to Portal as well. 

Resolution

It is the default notation for NULL in TDM that was created for Datamaker and has been migrated to Portal as well. This notation cannot be changed. 

Since this comes up only with DEBUG logging for investigation of Publish issues, consider this notation of NULL and analyze accordingly after checking the target DB for discrepancies in the specific table/column.