Russian Language characters showing as ????? chars

[Ms_X]

and another question, do I need to save any fileas as without BOM?I am so much confused now after reading a lots of posts here and trying to figure out the truth...

P.s:I am at the moment using my local PC(localhost for testing) and latest version of zencart

[Ms_X]

and another question, do I need to save any fileas as without BOM?I am so much confused now after reading a lots of posts here and trying to figure out the truth...

P.s:I am at the moment using my local PC(localhost for testing) and latest version of zencart

[DrByte]

Create a new file for it:
/includes/extra_configures/my_db_charset.php
Code:

<?php define('DB_CHARSET', 'utf-8');

Be sure to do that in your /RENAMED-ADMIN/includes/extra_configures folder too!!!!!
If you don't, then your admin activity won't be treated as utf-8.

So the question is what to do now? I looked in phpmyadmin, when i see the structure of my database, all the tables collation is set to "latin1_general_ci" and at the end of the list on the last row (where one can see the number of pages) I see in collation field "utf8_general_ci".

Well, I guess that's possible if you hadn't set the /zc_install/includes/installer_params.php file to use utf-8 as well:

<?php  define('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8');

I'm pretty sure you want to use "utf8", not "utf-8" when it comes to the DB_CHARSET. I think using "utf-8" would apply only in the language file.

the name my_db_charset.php should be written as my_db_charset.php or instead of my_db the name of my db should be written?

The filename doesn't matter. It could be called "fred.php" as long as the content inside is correct.

and another question, do I need to save any fileas as without BOM?

Yes. ALL files that contain utf-8 encoding in them need to be saved as UTF8-without-BOM.

[DrByte]

Responded to your questions here: http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showth...58#post1002758

[Ms_X]

Thanks a lot for your response, Dr. Byte,

I am now installing new fresh zencart using your advice and that article. I just set the /zc_install/includes/installer_params.php file to use utf-8 as well:

<?php define('DB_CHARSET', 'utf8');

and when i started intallation process of zen cart I got Bad Getway Error. But when I changed installer_params.php file back to what was there originally, I see Instalation page. Any suggestions on what should I do now?:-(I guess the problem is somewhere here that my russian characters displayed as question marks. I am looking im Mysl forums as well to find the answer,but unfortunately no results yet:-(

[Ms_X]

Sorry for saying I could not install it before. I just restarted my server and refreshed cash. Everything installed and on web site everything is shown in russian. Database tables are all set to utf_8_general_ci. Now I have different problem:When I add category or product in russian, after i save it, it is shown on the websites catalogue site as no name product like on the attached picture...

[Ms_X]

If I write using latin alphabet then i see the names of the products...So there must be a problem with russian characters then:-(

[Ms_X]

here some setting of the russian file:

@setlocale(LC_TIME, 'ru.utf8');
....


// charset for web pages and emails
define('CHARSET', 'windows-1251');

If I change to:
define('CHARSET', 'utf-8');

I get site translated the way that i see instead of russian words the ??? inside black diamonds. When do i need to convert files to utf without bom?before insyallation or after?i did not do it yet...

[Ms_X]

I was just thinking if this problem could occur because te old version of PHP and mysql?I have MySQL 5.0.45 and PHP/5.2.4 installed...

[DrByte]

When do i need to convert files to utf without bom?before insyallation or after?i did not do it yet...

Either is fine. Before is okay. After is okay.

I was just thinking if this problem could occur because te old version of PHP and mysql?I have MySQL 5.0.45 and PHP/5.2.4 installed...

MySQL version is unlikely to be a problem.

If you have the ability to use PHP 5.3 it might help.