DB_TYPE when Upgrading from 1.3.9f to 1.5.1

Hello, I am in the final stages of re-building my website and upgrading it to 1.5.1. I've followed all the necessary steps and merged my modifications and manually amended everything. I've done this in a demo site away from my live store and we have this week carried out final testing and all seems hopeful. I was planning to do the migration to the LIVE site tonight but I had a doubt in my mind about something I saw for the DB_TYPE. There appears to be a new variable/property in the configure.php file for 1.5.1 that sets the DB_TYPE to UTF8... However my current 1.3.9 database is defined as latin_swedish_ci... I need to understand the relevance of the DB_TYPE parameter in the configure.php file shipped with 1.5.1, as I don't have this parameter in my current LIVE configure.php.

1. Do I need the DB_TYPE setting in configure.php.
2. Does it matter what the DB_TYPE setting is actually set to vs. the actual collation of the underlying database?

Here's hoping for an answer please.

Cheers

Ross

In v1.5.0 and v1.5.1 the DB_TYPE defaults to utf-8 if not set. That said, if your database is currently latin1_swedish_ci and someone with a non-US keyboard buys from you, you run the chance of mangling their name/address in the database unless you add the DB_TYPE to your configure.php files and set it to "latin1".

Also check your /includes/languages/english.php files (both admin and store and template-override) and make sure that the CHARSET define is set to "iso-8859-1".

Please note: I'm not in anyway the expert in this area, but what I've told you is based on my experience.

Thank you lat9, that all sounds sensible. I will approach it with that in mind. Really appreciate your input.

No.

DB_TYPE is always 'mysql'

DB_CHARSET would be 'latin1' or 'utf8'

Duh! Thanks for keeping me straight, DrByte.

Thanks tons guys... Last night went well and the rebuild/upgrade went through ok. My blood pressure was raised and it was a tense couple of hours but all appeared to go ok... Thanks mainly to the amazing documentation for Rebuild/Upgrade instructions.

Just trying to work out now why 'Google Merchant Center Feeder' mod isn't working. Need to find the support thread for this. Getting a 550 Page Not Found when trying to generate the feed file.

DrByte:

DB_TYPE is always 'mysql'

Hi DrByte

Is the introduction of DB_TYPE a prelude to allowing zencart to run on other dbs eg pgsql.

Thanks

dw08gm:

Is the introduction of DB_TYPE a prelude ...
There's no "introduction" going on here. DB_TYPE has been present in the configure.php files since Zen Cart was first released.