Update to website not printing special Characters

dmcclean · September 20, 2010, 12:46pm

I thought you might be interested in how far I have got with solving
my problem with MySql(via phpMyAdmin) to website character_set
problems.

I thought I had solved the problem when my characters on my website
started showing the special characters.

This was a partial success though.

When I went back to phpMyAdmin and entered new text the problem was
the same, but reversed. What now happens is that the original text I
typed is now converted to gibberish(Latin1 to UTF8)

and new text entered, in phpMyAdmin, is output to website as “?”
again
See:-

http://donsgarden.co.uk/pests/228?telephone=2

What I did, as I could not change the server Craracter_set and
Collation (Shared Server). I got my host to change everything back to
Latin1. I was going to change my w/site meta line to ISO 8859-1.
From connecting to my database via ssh I got:-

Great I thought, but when I use phpMyAdmin to issue the same command I
got:-

show variables like ‘c%’;

Variable_name Value
character_set_client utf8
character_set_connection utf8
character_set_database latin1
character_set_filesystem binary
character_set_results utf8
character_set_server latin1
character_set_system utf8
character_sets_dir /usr/share/mysql/charsets/
collation_connection utf8_general_ci
collation_database latin1_swedish_ci
collation_server latin1_swedish_ci
completion_type 0
concurrent_insert 1
connect_timeout 10

Perhaps when I sort this out I will reach my ultimate goal of entering
text in phpMyAdmin and having it displayed on my website correctly.

Many thanks for all the help it has got me this far and now I have
hope I will solve the problem in the end.
Don

dmcclean · September 20, 2010, 12:51pm

On 20 September 2010 11:45, MDM [email protected] wrote:

the same, but reversed. What now happens is that the original text I
Latin1. I was going to change my w/site meta line to ISO 8859-1.
| character_set_database | latin1
| collation_connection | latin1_swedish_ci
10 |
character_set_client utf8
completion_type 0
concurrent_insert 1
connect_timeout 10

Perhaps when I sort this out I will reach my ultimate goal of entering
text in phpMyAdmin and having it displayed on my website correctly.

If the only remaining problem is phpmyadmin then a better solution may
be to provide some simple admin pages on your website for entering the
data, and forget about phpmyadmin.

Colin

dmcclean · September 20, 2010, 4:19pm

Don Mapp wrote:

I thought you might be interested in how far I have got with solving
my problem with MySql(via phpMyAdmin) to website character_set
problems.

Why did you start a new thread and make it harder to refer to the
original problem?

For reference, the old thread is at
Printing special characters on screen in Ruby - Rails - Ruby-Forum .

I thought I had solved the problem when my characters on my website
started showing the special characters.

This was a partial success though.

When I went back to phpMyAdmin and entered new text the problem was
the same, but reversed. What now happens is that the original text I
typed is now converted to gibberish(Latin1 to UTF8)

UTF8 is what you want to be using.

and new text entered, in phpMyAdmin, is output to website as “?”
again
See:-

http://donsgarden.co.uk/pests/228?telephone=2

What I did, as I could not change the server Craracter_set and
Collation (Shared Server). I got my host to change everything back to
Latin1.

Wait, wait, wait, wait. Why are you using a shared host (not generally
a great idea for Rails)? Worse, why are you using a host that doesn’t
let you change your own DB charset settings? Even shared hosting should
let you do that. If not, find another hosting provider.

I was going to change my w/site meta line to ISO 8859-1.

From connecting to my database via ssh I got:-

mysql> show variables like ‘c%’;
±-------------------------±---------------------------+
| Variable_name |
Value |
±-------------------------±---------------------------+
| character_set_client |
latin1 |
| character_set_connection | latin1 |
| character_set_database | latin1
|
| character_set_filesystem | binary
|
| character_set_results |
latin1 |
| character_set_server |
latin1 |
| character_set_system |
utf8 |
| character_sets_dir | /usr/share/mysql/charsets/ |
| collation_connection | latin1_swedish_ci
|
| collation_database | latin1_swedish_ci
|
| collation_server |
latin1_swedish_ci |
| completion_type |
0 |
| concurrent_insert |
1 |
| connect_timeout |
10 |
±-------------------------±---------------------------+
14 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Great I thought, but when I use phpMyAdmin to issue the same command I
got:-

show variables like ‘c%’;

Variable_name Value
character_set_client utf8
character_set_connection utf8
character_set_database latin1
character_set_filesystem binary
character_set_results utf8
character_set_server latin1
character_set_system utf8
character_sets_dir /usr/share/mysql/charsets/
collation_connection utf8_general_ci
collation_database latin1_swedish_ci
collation_server latin1_swedish_ci
completion_type 0
concurrent_insert 1
connect_timeout 10

Yuck! That’s really inconsistent. Change it all to UTF-8.

Perhaps when I sort this out I will reach my ultimate goal of entering
text in phpMyAdmin and having it displayed on my website correctly.

I agree with Colin – don’t worry too much about phpMyAdmin. Worry
about the actual DB. If you want to build an admin tool quickly, try
ActiveScaffold.

And follow the advice in the older thread. It will stand you in better
stead than what you’ve actually done.

Many thanks for all the help it has got me this far and now I have
hope I will solve the problem in the end.

You will – if you actually take the advice given to you.

Don

Best,

Marnen Laibow-Koser
http://www.marnen.org
[email protected]

dmcclean · September 20, 2010, 5:19pm

Thanks Colin
That’s what my son is hitting me over the head with.
He dosn’t want to help as he said I should have used ROR to enter the
data,
which should have avoided all these problems.
Mind you If I had done that I would not have learned so much about
Encoding.
When I re-write in ROR 3 and Ruby 1.9.x I plan to do that.
Don

dmcclean · September 20, 2010, 5:35pm

Please quote when replying. The discussion is hard to follow if you
don’t.

Don Mapp wrote:

Thanks guys for all the support and advice.
Yep I would have preferred to use UFT8

Then do! Convert what data you have that’s encoded differently (iconv
is your friend), and switch completely to UTF-8 (not UFT8).

[…]

Anyway now I am this far I want to solve this the hard way.

What do you consider to be the hard way? Often the hard way is actually
the wrong way. If it’s not easy, you’re usually doing something wrong.

That way I will learn so much more about these various technologies.
Don

Best,

Marnen Laibow-Koser
http://www.marnen.org
[email protected]

dmcclean · September 20, 2010, 5:09pm

Thanks guys for all the support and advice.
Yep I would have preferred to use UFT8 and if I did do another ROR
project I would do it differently,
But having started learning ROR a few years ago I have gradually built
up the website piecemeal.
And At the mo I am still a relative newbie and sometimes it is better
the devil you know.
One day when I have time I will re-write the whole project and look
for a different host.
Ruby 1.9.2 and Ruby on Rails 3 beckon soon. I still think 1.9.2 needs
a little settling down.
Anyway now I am this far I want to solve this the hard way.
That way I will learn so much more about these various technologies.
Don