[FX.php List] Re: FX.php_List Digest, Vol 26, Issue 23

[Lindal, Mark]

This is an advanced topic and I need some help to sort our character
encoding for fm5/6 data.

This is centered around iso-8559-1 vs utf-8

To send data successfully to an FM5/6 database requires iso-8559-1 encoding.

Example:  when creating a new record [FMNew() ] Québec is entered into the
filemaker database as Qu at A#5bec if the encoding is UTF-8.  When the encoding
is iso-8559-1 Québec is entered as Québec.

Now the question:

If a person with a browser set to default coding UTF-8 override my page
settings (ISO-8559-1) and still enter garbage characters into the database?

I tested with Safari set to UTF-8 and it did override my page settings.

So now to the guts:  é = %E9 under iso-8559-1 and %C3%A9 under UTF-8

In other words: How can I fix the URL string FX.php creates to be ISO
characters in these cases.

An example URL string

http://FX:password@host:591/FMPro?-db=database.fp5&-lay=web&-format=-fmp_xml
&province=Qu%E9bec&-edit

In FX.php there are xml_parser and ExecuteQuery () and Characterencoding
that may need to be tweaked - but I need to know which functions might need
to be tweaked so this clears the data.

This may be a minor bug in FX.php for case='fmpro5/6' that needs to be
looked at.

> 
> While I can't vouch for the veracity of the first part above, I can say
> that
> I use ISO-8859-1 everyday with FMSA8. Having said that, I really
> *should* be
> using UTF-8, but we still have a mixed FMU6/FMSA8 environment at the
> moment.

------------------------------
Mark Lindal
Publications Technician  / Technicien, publications
Canadian Forest Service  / Service canadien des forêts
Natural Resources Canada / Ressources naturelles Canada
Government of Canada     / Gouvernement du Canada
506 West Burnside Road   / 506, chemin Burnside ouest
Victoria, BC V8Z 1M5     / Victoria (C.-B.) V8Z 1M5

mlindal at pfc.forestry.ca
250-363-0603