[FX.php List] Strange encoding problem

Wed Sep 7 20:34:55 MDT 2011

Found it!

To explain: when a user selects a couple of parameters (comparing 2 vehicle models), I query the database to find the static HTML page that has a report on it (they're static because that's what my client generates); the final page of the app includes the appropriate static HTML page.

Because these awful pages are made from MS Word, which has a "create HTML" feature, they're stuffed with awful tags, including an open <html> tag and a couple of HEAD tags; when I added a UTF-8 tag, it fixed the error, but there are almost 2 million of these pages, so no way to fix them all.

So my question was, why did this suddenly happen? I have 9 web servers here, and some would encode the page properly, some not; by comparing the modules that are enabled in OS X Server, I was able to determine that by having the "header module" OFF, and not encoding for UTF-8, the page rendered properly.

So that's all it was; somehow the web server had the header module enabled... :)

Best,

Bob

Bob Patin
Longterm Solutions LLC
P.O. Box 3408
Brentwood, TN 37024
bob at longtermsolutions.com
615-333-6858
http://www.longtermsolutions.com
iChat: bobpatin
AIM: longterm1954
Twitter: bobpatin
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On Sep 7, 2011, at 8:57 PM, Dale Bengston wrote:

> Bob, to be clear - the files on the server are included in a parent file that talks to a database? So when you pulled the file local, you were bypassing that parent include part?
> 
> I find it unlikely that OS X Server would suddenly just change its encoding for web services. What else has changed on the server recently?
> 
> Dale
> 
> On Sep 7, 2011, at 7:49 PM, Bob Patin wrote:
> 
>> Hey,
>> 
>> Here's an interesting thing: I took one of these files, copied it to the desktop, then opened it locally on the browser on the web server; looked fine.
>> 
>> I then took the same file, put it in the website's folder, opened it on the web using the same browser, but accessed it via the site's domain name--encoding problem.
>> 
>> I'm thinking there's something that's messed up in OS X Server that's causing this, but I can't find it... perhaps a module that isn't on any longer perhaps. 
>> 
>> Any ideas welcome!
>> 
>> BP
>> 
>> 
>> Bob Patin
>> Longterm Solutions LLC
>> P.O. Box 3408
>> Brentwood, TN 37024
>> bob at longtermsolutions.com
>> 615-333-6858
>> http://www.longtermsolutions.com
>> iChat: bobpatin
>> AIM: longterm1954
>> Twitter: bobpatin
>> Google+: http://www.longtermsolutions.com/plus
>> --
>> FileMaker 9, 10 & 11 Certified Developer
>> Member of FileMaker Business Alliance and FileMaker TechNet
>> --
>> FileMaker hosting and consulting for all versions of FileMaker
>> PHP • Full email services • Free DNS hosting • Colocation • Consulting
>> On Sep 7, 2011, at 7:27 PM, Dale Bengston wrote:
>> 
>>> Have you taken a look at the physical files, or loaded them manually in a browser outside of the database call? Just wondering if there's some corruption going on or something.
>>> 
>>> Dale
>> 
> 