PM notification is empty

[BlackandGold]

Hello,

as we test the use of PHP6 , we encountered one problem: PM notifications sent per mail don't show the PM text if there is an umlaut there (ä, ö, ü, etc.).
I'm not entirely sure where to start... At the Moment we have the German-Iso-8859-1 language set installed. UTF-8 is a disaster, because nearly every thread on the forum will show up as empty.

My thoughts were, that exactly this is the reason for our notification problems. Am I right? How can I do something about it?

Our board: www.drachenfest.info/forum [nofollow]

Thank you for your help!

[Kindred]

you need to convert everything to UTF-8...   the forum setting, the base language and the Database (and all tables and fields)

[BlackandGold]

I was hoping for some kind of another answer... How can I convert my database?

[Kindred]

there is a conversion routine in smf admin , server settings....  not sure how well it works though, especially on any modified tables...

[Arantor]

I thought it was in Admin > Maintenance > Database myself... and IIRC it will attempt even mod tables. But a backup in case will always be helpful.

The truth is that UTF-8 when properly applied is actually more stable than any ISO encoding, so much so that I actually took the time to remove all non UTF-8 code on my setup.

[Kindred]

yup... maintenance is correct.   s'what I get for posting on a phone, from memory


Once of these days, I have to convert my stuff to UTF-8

[BlackandGold]

Ok, thanks, I will try that.

[Eibbon]

We are running SMF 2.0.4 as well with iso-8856-1 characer set, but instead of PHP6 we run on PHP5 (PHP Version 5.4.9-nmm1), but we encounter the same problem (empty PM notification, i.e. missing message).

Converting from iso-8856-1 to utf-8 is not an option, so is this a well known bug and SMF 2.0.4 is delivered with iso-8859.1 support even with this bug?? I cant believe that.

There is another bug in Admin area (that might be for the same reason), if we edit existing boards, the field containing the boardname is empty in some cases (maybe if there is an Umlaut in the name, i can go deeper into that if we have any chance that you will fix these bugs).

Regards
Eibbon

[Nightcat]

We are running SMF 2.0.4 as well with iso-8856-1 characer set, but instead of PHP6 we run on PHP5 (PHP Version 5.4.9-nmm1), but we encounter the same problem (empty PM notification, i.e. missing message).

Converting from iso-8856-1 to utf-8 is not an option, so is this a well known bug and SMF 2.0.4 is delivered with iso-8859.1 support even with this bug?? I cant believe that.

There is another bug in Admin area (that might be for the same reason), if we edit existing boards, the field containing the boardname is empty in some cases (maybe if there is an Umlaut in the name, i can go deeper into that if we have any chance that you will fix these bugs).

Regards
Eibbon

Same problems... have cp1251 characer set run on PHP Version 5.4.15

Any chance that you will fix these bugs?

[BlackandGold]

So, I would suggest you open a new thread. My problem was solved after switching to MySql 5, PHP6 and UTF-8.

One thing I would suggest: Notify your members, that every password with ä, ö, ü and other more exotic stuff could be undecipherable by the forum. I encountered that particular problem a few times.

[XerraX]

Is there something to consider before converting? Do there need to be new language files for mods or something?

[Arantor]

Yes, mod support is fairly important - unless you're using English. In English it actually doesn't matter too much either way for mods because they can fall back on English ISO translations and it should generally be fine.

For any language other than English you really will need to uninstall everything and reinstall it.

[XerraX]

reinstall everything is not an option at this time. i hope this bug will be fixed soon. since iso format is used in most german websites.

[Arantor]

It's not a bug. It's by design. The reality is that most mods will not install the UTF-8 versions of translations unless you're already using UTF-8. So uninstall and reinstall the mods to make it work or splice the code in manually.

As for 'ISO format is used in most German websites'... which ISO format, exactly? There are multiple that could be applicable. I would also argue that any competent website today should be using a Unicode format for interoperability; ISO is woefully outdated these days.

[XerraX]

old charset was ISO-8859-1 and the new is windows-1252

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO/IEC_8859-1

[Arantor]

Why are you using Windows-1252? It's not properly supported by SMF at all. UTF-8 is a superset (has everything Win-1252 does and much more) that is supported.

[XerraX]

I dont use it. It just replaced the old charset.

Anyway, back to topic. What if i just copy the iso strings into the utf file. what will break? the umlauts? something else?

[Arantor]

If you try to do that the odds are any non ASCII character (i.e. ANY accented character) will be damaged actually in the database.

[XerraX]

i guess i have to write a batch that will replace these characteres in my string files. thanks anyway

[Arantor]

The odds of that being successful are far too slim. And there are other things that need to be done (like modifying other things in the language files)

Please, do me two favours: 1) take a backup before you break anything and 2) don't ask for support when it breaks because it will. There are only a handful of people who can fix this stuff, and I can guarantee none of them will be enthusiastic about unbreaking the potential mess you're about to create.