# Rails 3 : german umlauts in controller **URL:** \ **Category:** Rails\ **Created:** [August 29, 2010, 9:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-3-german-umlauts-in-controller/194072 "2010-08-29T21:00:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![fink](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/85f322/32.png) [@fink](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/fink)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2010, 9:00pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-3-german-umlauts-in-controller/194072/1 "2010-08-29T21:00:50Z")
Hi everybody, with rails 3 I have the problem that the controllers don’t accept german umlaute anymore. E.g. when I try to build an array: landschaft = %w[Berg Hügel Tal Ebene] I get this lovely error message: … controller.rb:5: invalid multibyte char (US-ASCII) Sure enough the document encoding of the controller is utf8. Can anyone of You point me to the right direction? Thanks and greetings Sven P.S.: I am testing with ruby 1.9.2 and rails 3 rc2 ---
**Author:** ![fink](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/85f322/32.png) [@fink](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/fink)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 5:00am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-3-german-umlauts-in-controller/194072/2 "2010-08-30T05:00:23Z")
Ruby 1.9 doesn’t interpret the source file as UTF-8 unless it is specified at the top of the file like this: # encoding: utf-8 Try adding it to the first line of your controller file. Tor Erik ---
**Author:** ![fink](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/85f322/32.png) [@fink](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/fink)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2010, 6:21pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-3-german-umlauts-in-controller/194072/3 "2010-08-30T18:21:31Z")
Sven K. wrote: > Hi everybody, > > with rails 3 I have the problem that the controllers don’t accept german > umlaute anymore. > E.g. when I try to build an array: > > landschaft = %w[Berg Hügel Tal Ebene] > […] This isn’t directly related to your problem, but…why on earth is this stuff in your controller? It should be in the DB, or failing that, in an initializer or model. ## Best, Marnen Laibow-Koser [http://www.marnen.org](http://www.marnen.org) removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid ---
**Author:** ![fink](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/85f322/32.png) [@fink](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/fink)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 9:37am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-3-german-umlauts-in-controller/194072/4 "2010-09-01T09:37:52Z")
Hello Tor, the enconding - hint works perfectly, thank You very much! What leads me to the question why rails 1.9 interprets files as us-ascii - is this a good idea? And hello Marnen, it was just an example, I came across when I tried to find an error in my application. I was working on the controller and just needed an array. But as I am a beginner I am absolutely sure I would have left things like that in the controller instead of putting them where they belong. So thank You very much too for reminding me. But no matter if I put my array in the controller or model I need the # encoding: utf-8 line. Conclusion for all non-US-collegues: The encoding problem often happens, when it comes to notices or error-messages I want to show to the user. Even if I know that my application will be in german it’s worth it to leave those messages in english and use the localization-files (in my case de.yml) for the text with special character encodings. Thanks again, lesson learned 🙂 greetings Sven ---
**Author:** ![fink](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/f/85f322/32.png) [@fink](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/fink)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2010, 3:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rails-3-german-umlauts-in-controller/194072/5 "2010-09-01T15:54:45Z")
Sven K. wrote: > Hello Tor, the enconding - hint works perfectly, thank You very much! > What leads me to the question why rails 1.9 interprets files as us-ascii > > - is this a good idea? If I understand correctly, this is more of a core Ruby 1.9 issue than a Rails issue. Ruby 1.9 changed its encoding handling significantly – probably for the better, but it _is_ more complex than 1.8, from what I understand. (Take this with a grain of salt. I haven’t used 1.9 yet.) > And hello Marnen, it was just an example, I came across when I tried to > find an error in my application. I was working on the controller and > just needed an array. But as I am a beginner I am absolutely sure I > would have left things like that in the controller instead of putting > them where they belong. So thank You very much too for reminding me. > > But no matter if I put my array in the controller or model I need the # > encoding: utf-8 line. Right. If it comes from the DB, you don’t, at least not that way. In that case, you need to make sure your DB encoding is correct. > Conclusion for all non-US-collegues: The encoding problem often happens, > when it comes to notices or error-messages I want to show to the user. > Even if I know that my application will be in german it’s worth it to > leave those messages in english and use the localization-files (in my > case de.yml) for the text with special character encodings. That’s true, but for reasons that have little to do with encoding, and more with application structure. (Of course, I believe that all text and source code files should be UTF-8 anyway.) > Thanks again, lesson learned 🙂 > greetings > Sven ## Best, Marnen Laibow-Koser [http://www.marnen.org](http://www.marnen.org) removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid