Efficient handling of bi-directional data

A computer program product for improving database management utilizing standardized layout transformations of bi-directional (BIDI) data exchanged between legacy and modern systems, the computer program product comprising:

• one or more computer readable storage devices and program instructions stored on the one or more computer readable storage devices, the program instructions comprising:
• program instructions to retrieve client connection information from a client request for data;
• program instructions to determine based, at least in part, on the client connection information, an operating system of a client application, wherein the determination indicates whether the operating system is a modern operating system;
• program instructions to determine whether the data requested in the client request is BIDI data, wherein determining includes identifying the data requested and determining whether the data requested exhibits one or more bi-directional properties that indicate BIDI data;
• program instructions to determine the data requested is BIDI data where the data requested exhibits layout properties indicative of BIDI data;
• responsive to a determination that the data requested is BIDI data, program instructions to initiate a layout transformation of the data requested at a single point within a database server, wherein initiating includes determining a plurality of data from a connection string of the client request, where the plurality of data indicates a type of bi-directional data transformation for converting the BIDI data into a layout compatible with the operating system of the client application, wherein the type of bi-directional data transformation may be a transformation of visual data to logical data and logical data to visual data;
• responsive to the plurality of data from the connection string indicating the BIDI data is being inserted into the database server from the client application utilizing the modern operating system, program instructions to convert visual data to logical data at the single point within the database server;
• and
• program instructions to return converted BIDI data to the client application.