Product names Garbled in Order Confirmation email

[Peace Freak]

I am having problems with the order confirmation emails... Some times they do not get sent out, but I have addressed that in another section...

What I want to address here is related to character garbling (mojibake). When orders are placed within the Japanese side, most of the confirmation email is readable, except the section that lists the actual items...

Here is an example of what I am getting...

********************
??????????????
??
------------------------------------------------------
1 x
子どもは病気を食べている
- 日本語 = 500Yen
------------------------------------------------------
??: 500Yen
1?????? (): 200Yen
Sales Tax - 日本の消費税 5.0%: 25Yen
??: 725Yen
*****************
This is what is happening when an order is placed on the English side. Just the word sales tax, which I have written first in English then Japanese is garbled (mojibake).
*****************
Sub-Total: 500Yen
Per Item (Best Way): 200Yen
Sales Tax - 日本の消費税 5.0%: 25Yen
Total: 725Yen
*****************

I wonder how this problem might be resolved? Perhaps the Japanese version of some of the Zen-Cart Files needs to be updated? Could anyone give me any pointers on what I should replace. My version is from a couple of months ago.

Thanks!

[Peace Freak]

Additional Info...

After posting this message, I noticed that what was mojibake had become readable Japanese! (In my browser) So I went back to my mail program and tried changing the encoding to ALL of the Japanese options, but it could not be read regardless... I am including a picture of the unreadable characters as an example...

[Reesy]

I think this is because you are entering the Japanese product names etc in the admin side with the admin languge selection being English.
If you are completing the English text, the admin language needs to be English.
To complete the Japanese text, the admin language needs to be Japanese.

HTH
Oh you also need to add sama to the invoice after the name not to offend anyone that buys anything.

[Peace Freak]

Thanks... I have older J Versions of the Japanese language modules installed so I think I will update them and see if that helps...

[Peace Freak]

Not sure where I should be asking this question. It is language related, but I think it could be for this section...

I have a two language cart, English and Japanese. After an order is placed an order confirmation email is sent out. The English one is fine, but when orders are placed on the Japanese side, JUST the lines where the names of the products purchased are listed become unreadable, with the following style of characters, a mix of numbers and the & and # mark...

楽して得して徳し

As I said, this is the product title, and it appears in the store fine and everywhere else, and the rest of the email has readable Japanese... What could be the problem?

Would appreciate any ones input on this!

[DrByte]

You've been working on this site for a long time, and making numerous changes.

When did this problem start happening?

[Peace Freak]

Thank always Dr. Byte,

Have been slowly ironing out problems, it is getting pretty close now! Being multilingual has added to the learning curve and complexity!

The store only went online on July 20th (one month ago!) so until then the problem may have existed, but I didn’t know about it...

Basically, I discovered the problem with the very first Japanese order... probably about 3 weeks ago. I put it on the backburner as within Admin/Customers/Orders I could read the Japanese. I had many other interface and translations problems to deal over the last 3 weeks, and I prioritized them as they were connected with the appearance of the store from the customers point of view.

I hope you can suggest something... I now know those numbers are the equivalent of actual Japanese characters, but why just those are appearing unreadable, when the rest of the email appears fine seems strange...

I look forward to hearing from you!

[DrByte]

I"m sure it's a unicode/charset problem. I have no idea why/how, unless the way the data is coming out of the database is being retrieved in such a way that makes it not match the format of whatever is going into the email ...

[Peace Freak]

Here is something else that I hope can help unravel this... I have been placing test orders using a log in name and a Yahoo email address. I just noticed that in my Yahoo account the order notification email is completely readable!

It is not exactly the same email that the store owner gets sent. The one the store owner receives has the following attached at the bottom:

Office Use Only:
From:
Email:
Login Name: D
Login Email: d....e######################
Telephone: 070-5565-1111
IP Address: 232.225.81.81 - 232.225.81.81
Host Address: jw98.opt2.maple.co.jp
Date and Time: Sun Aug 20 2006 5:33:47 EDT

Otherwise, it appears exactly the same. It is still a mystery to me but I hope you can suggest something..

[Peace Freak]

I have been doing more research on this... As the text was appearing fine in a web based email program, I decided to ask at a forum related to the mail program I am using. Here is the reply I got...

*****
I don't think this is an encoding problem. Using &, # and numbers to represent Japanese is only possible in web pages and other html. It is not a valid way to express Japanese in text email, and no one would normally do it. The only way to read it is probably via web based mail I think.
*****

So this leads me to believe that the problem may be due to a file or some code that is not up to date in the Japanese version of Zen that I am using. No official 1.3 version is available yet, so in the meantime I have downloaded it piecemeal style, and maybe I missed something?

I am not sure what particular code/files/modules are involved in this confirmation email process. If someone could let me know, I will try replacing them with the most current versions...

Thanks in advance!