UTF-8 Zen-Cart Tutorial for v1.3.x

I posted a tutorial as to how to transition zen-cart over to UTF-8 encoding also having the database encoded in UTF-8 too. This was made for carts using Japanese, but it could be used for many other languages.

Here is the link
UTF-8 Zen-Cart

I hope people find this helpful.

Regards,

CKD

Excellent tutorial.. thanks for taking time
to create and share
:clap:

Its always good to give back. I wish, I had more to give.

Thanks for the tip. It would be something great to have as a standard feature in a next version of Zencart.

I wish it was UTF-8 from the get go too, but I understand that when they started zen-cart, UTF-8 wasnt really a good option then. So to change everyone over, would be a huge pain I am sure. I would like to make a way to take an existing cart and change it over to UTF-8, database and all.

Maybe when I get more time, I will look into that.

if i already installed my zen cart, would i need to re-install after i finished everything in the tutorial

@bmpt
This is aimed at starting with a fresh install. If you are running your cart already and you apply this to a current cart, there could be problems. What languages are you running?

I would recomend you install on a backup store first. But let me know your setup and maybe I can offer some suggestions.

Regards,
CKD

I kind of thought that, Im only running English right now & most likely i will only offer English, My Sister lives in japan & i wanted to see how accurate the translation is. Thanks for the advise

I am sorry, i might be wrong, but it seems Zen-cart install creates databases in other collation, the should be some touches in install directory as well (correct me if i am wrong)

@lazy_666

Wow, thats name you got there, anyways. Did it not work for you? It should work as is no problem, but please let me know if you do encounter a problem.

Regards,

CKD

I did converted my website for UTF-8 before i found your thread :( but i did basicaly most of the things described.
So we can accept that "yes it did work for me", actually, i converted my files from Windows-1251 to UTF-8 as an aditional work, because if you use old encoding, you end up with a mess, or as i like to say MESS.

Actually it is very nice article, even short - full of information.

If not UTF8 encoded, can I use Japanese pack correctly? If yes, there is known problem with that?

MiuMiu Handbags

Never tried Japanese, but with my experience with Bulgarian (completely different character set) u cant. At least not without heavy modifications...

@alvalong

You can, but if you don't already have a cart going, there really is not reason not to. You will have less problems running it in UTF-8.

You can, just run the Japanese side in UTF-8 though.

Good Luck
CKD

ps. I am busy until next week, so I can't test the checkout pages just right yet, for anyone that is having problems with this. If you are having problems, let me know if you setup a custom template for it, and if you are doing the zone drop down in both languages.

Hello,

I have a strange problem with building a UTF8 Zencart.

Now I am trying to move my Zencart shop from my old server to a new one. I built the shop by using UTF8 code and it works fine on my old server. But after I moved the shop, I am facing some character code issue.
When I restored my backup copy to the new server, it could display correct characters on both MySql(PHPMyAdmin) and my Zencart shop, but when I input some data from my web shop(for instance, input personal data when signing up for a new account or add a new product from admin page), the characters will become a mess. Besides, if I insert the data from PHPMyAdmin, everything will be fine.
I followed the directions of this post to install a fresh Zencart with UTF8 in my new server but still have the same problem.
Does any one know what could be the reason of this issue? Thank you for your advice in advance.

have you changed query_factory.php ?

Yes, I have changed it

Whats your Collation settings in phpMyAdmin?

Did you do this?

Go to phpMyAdmin->Operations. From there go to Collation and change it to "utf8_general_ci", then hit "Go".

nurapipi:

Hello,

I have a strange problem with building a UTF8 Zencart.

Now I am trying to move my Zencart shop from my old server to a new one. I built the shop by using UTF8 code and it works fine on my old server. But after I moved the shop, I am facing some character code issue.
When I restored my backup copy to the new server, it could display correct characters on both MySql(PHPMyAdmin) and my Zencart shop, but when I input some data from my web shop(for instance, input personal data when signing up for a new account or add a new product from admin page), the characters will become a mess. Besides, if I insert the data from PHPMyAdmin, everything will be fine.
I followed the directions of this post to install a fresh Zencart with UTF8 in my new server but still have the same problem.
Does any one know what could be the reason of this issue? Thank you for your advice in advance.

Actually that shouldn't be your problem...I would go over the steps again and check your code. Check it anyways, the collation.

Maybe start with a fresh cart on your new server and start form scratch there and see if you get the same results. Not fun, I know, but its a good way to learn.

Good luck,

CKD

narupipi,
You didn't say from which server to which server you transfered your zencart?
it could be a collation trouble as it is platform dependent.
Look at your language files and try different collation...
@setlocale(LC_TIME, 'ja_JP.utf8'); this one for example will work perfectly on a Unix system but not on Windows server where this is better:
@setlocale(LC_TIME, 'ja');