PHP - Character Encoding = $pain

I submit text to my MySQL database using a form on my site. When I look at the text in my database, sometimes, there are strange characters. The strange characters are caused by quotation marks, em dashes, apostrophes and foreign letters of the alphabet. I think that this only happens when the source of the text is a Windows program. I understand that this is a character encoding issue, but I don't fully understand the subject. I've spent the last few hours researching it, but it's only confused me.   My site uses UTF-8 encoding:

<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/xml; charset=utf-8" />

The collation of my database is utf8_general_ci.   My form looks like this:

<form action="" method="post">
</form>

As you can see, an accept-charset="utf-8" attribute has not been specified.     Questions   1) I am guessing that my problem is that the Windows characters are being misinterpreted by my UTF-8 setup. Is that correct?   2) If so, is there a way that I can safely convert the Windows characters to UTF-8 during the submission process?   3) Should I also specify an accept-charset="utf-8" attribute on the form?   4) When I paste the Windows text directly into my database without using the form, the characters save without turning into the strange characters. But they don't render properly on my site. Can't browsers identify Windows characters?

I have been staring at this code for hours trying to figure out what is wrong, I guarantee that someone is going to look at it and make me feel like a tool.  The first query is not going through the list, the second is.  It worked till I started updating to PDO. I have tested the SQL, that works, probably a flipping comma or a quotation mark screwing with my brain. Please look and spot the obvious balls up and point it out to me.

as in I get a result that looks like this 

Heading
question
question
question

and it stops.
 

I am expecting
Heading
question
question
question

Heading
question
question
question

Why is this failing? Please show a doddering old fool what I am doing wrong...

$query = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM faq_cats WHERE faqc_site = :site ORDER BY faqc_id ASC LIMIT 0,4");
		$query->bindParam(":site", $site);
		$query->execute();

		while($row = $query->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC)) {	
				$fid = $row["faqc_id"];
				$faqc = $row["faqc_name"];
					echo "<h2> ".$faqc." </h2>";
						
							$query = $pdo->prepare("SELECT * FROM faqs WHERE faq_cat = :fid ORDER BY faq_id ASC");
							$query->bindParam(":fid", $fid);
							$query->execute();
							while($row1 = $query->fetch(PDO::FETCH_ASSOC)) {	
								$faid=$row1["faq_id"];
								$faqn=$row1["faq_question"];
					echo "<a href=\"#".$faid."\">".$faqn."</a><br />";
				}
		}

 

Hi,

Could anyone tell me what this encoding is please Code: [Select]
<?php $_F=__FILE__;$_X='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';$_D=strrev('edoced_46esab');eval($_D('JF9YPWJhc2U2NF9kZWNvZGUoJF9YKTskX1g9c3RydHIoJF9YLCcvalRRM3RkeXV3ZkpOZWs5PThJaUVdeGwKMlJWIE9HNzFVNE01WDZMLjBEWj59bm9ne3pXY0JzS2JtWVNGSHZhUHJxWzxoQXBDJywnNnlGeHN2aTVtU1BZdWxJelFxZ0tmY0pqa1ZFYTQ9e2Jod2RVT0ddLzwycE1BVy5CMDhYMSA+ClpybmVvOX03THRbTjNEQ1RIUicpOyRfUj1zdHJfcmVwbGFjZSgnX19GSUxFX18nLCInIi4kX0YuIiciLCRfWCk7ZXZhbCgkX1IpOyRfUj0wOyRfWD0wOw=='));?>
Thanks in advance

Hello all. I have a php script that creates an xml file pulled from a mysql database. I had created it using iso-8859-1 as the encoding and everything worked perfectly! However, the client wants it encoded at UTF-8.

$_xml ="<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\" ?>\r\n";

When I do that I get the following error --

An invalid character was found in text content. Error processing resource 'http://www.....


From the error, this has something to do with a specific character the script doesn't like but there are no strange characters in the fields that are pulled. Any ideas what may be the problem?

I would greatly appreciate any help!

When a user clicks on a topic they are transfered to its post, which is retrieved by the name of the topic as given by the url value. up to now i have just used urlencode. But its trickier when a user adds slashes and dots into the mix. for example the title of the post is testing/testing. The url will go to www.asimpleforum.co.uk/t/testing/testing. How would i get around this since url encode doesnt do the job? I could replace slashes and dots with their own unique symbol but that produces the problem when someone uses one of those symbols that i use to replace in their topic title. I know one site in particular that replaces all dots and slashes with a hyphen (-), but how would you know what to turn the hyphen into when you query the database for that topic? Anyone have any ideas?

Hi every one
I want to encode my website and I've just found the attached file .

What is this encoder  ? is there anyway to encode that ?

Thanks

Hi guys,

I'm constructing a PHP document, using SimpleXML- I want to set the encolding of the document to "ISO-8859-1" - how do I do this..

This prob is driving me nuts... Can someone please help?

Thanks in advance.

Will

hello i have problem with reading utf-8 text from normal text file with utf8 encoding. I am bulgarian i want to read and write bulgarian text but i cant.
        $fh = fopen("pics/names.txt", 'r');
        $theData = fread($fh, 5);
   fclose($fh);
        echo $theData;

This is what i use. Iam with windows 7. Pls help me...

Hi, here is my script to get the usernames of a few members. I'm trying to encode it using JSON. Code: [Select]
<?php
require("connect.php");


$date = date("Y-m-d");
$picarray = array();
        $handle = opendir ('pqimages/'.$date.'/');
        while (false !== ($file = readdir($handle))) {
            if($file != "." && $file != "..") {
$getusername = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM users WHERE lastupload='pqimages/".$date."/".$file."'");
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($getusername)){

$usernames= $row['username'];
$people = array();
$people[] = $usernames;

echo json_encode($people); 
 
}
            }


        }


?> the only problem is the output:["mumford"]["franzwarning"]["tetris"]
when it should be: ["mumford", "franzwarning", "tetris"]

any recommendations?
Thanks,
George

I'm trying to write a zend restful api and am return a json result. Everything works excepts when I am encoding a very large string such as a article with multiple paragraphs. The result is null in this case.  Do I need to do something with the text before performing a json encode.

Code: [Select]
$this->getResponse()
            ->appendBody($this->_helper->json($article));

Seem to be having a problem with json_encode.  My first time using this.  What I have is some php generated filenames that include their relative paths along with some attributes such as extension,width & height.  I have made a php array out of these with the filename string as the first level key and the attributes being an array under each of those keys.    An example: Array ( [/photos/mainmenu/Chateau_dAgassac] => Array ( [img] => jpg [caption] => txt [w] => 600 [h] => 400 ) [/photos/mainmenu/IMG_1358] => Array ( [img] => jpg [caption] => txt [w] => 600 [h] => 400 ) [/photos/mainmenu/IMG_1367] => Array ( [img] => jpg [caption] => txt [w] => 600 [h] => 400 ) )   I then did a json_encode of this array and assigned it to a JS variable and it looks like I want it to look in my js code when I view the source of the output page.  Except for one thing.  All the keys (filenames) have a backslash in front of all the forward slashes that are part of the path.  This complicates things when I try and take a filepath/name string from my html and use it to grab some attributes for that filename   An example of the js array: img_data = { "\/photos\/mainmenu\/Chateau_dAgassac":{"img":"jpg","caption":"txt","w":600,"h":400}, "\/photos\/mainmenu\/IMG_1358":{"img":"jpg","caption":"txt","w":600,"h":400}, "\/photos\/mainmenu\/IMG_1367":{"img":"jpg","caption":"txt","w":600,"h":400} }   This is literally how it looks in a view of the source code of my browser page.   What's the trick to accessing this js array now when I have a filename (href) in my html <img> tag that obviously no longer matches what I have in my js array?

Hi, i would like to encode a url example.

$error="You must be signed in";
$enc=urlencode("http://localhost/finxed/asku/asked.php?error=$error");
header("LOCATION: $enc");

Could some one tell me what can i do to achieve my desired result. I want the header to take to the LOCATION, which is $enc but i wanted it to be encoded when displayed in the url field. The current code is not working.