Recordsets disappear from menu when adding mysql_query ("SET NAMES 'utf8'"); below the connection in php

Question

I hope someone can help with this. I'm trying to create a
dynamic site using dreamweaver CS3, with php5 and mysql5 in the
background but I'm having difficulty with recordsets disappearing
from the server behaviour menu when tweaking the code to allow set
characters or set names for utf8.
For a while, I've been having a problem getting my
dynamically generated master list pages (eg lists of jobs) to
display international characters like an accented french e (and
other languages) and for these to display correctly when viewed in
phpmyadmin also. So, I've placed headers at the top of the page for
utf8 and created the content metatag for utf8 in the page code.
Where needed I've added ENT_QUOTES utf etc for htmlentities and
added accept-charset utf-8 in the <form> action area.
(one thing I haven't done in the form action area is add
<enctype="multipart/form-data">, but I'm not sure if this
will make any difference)
In the backend, the innoDB database is collated and built
using utf8_unicode_ci. I'm on a shared host -so can't directly
access php.ini or adjust the connection settings through
phpmyadmin. But I can write .htaccess files (currently with the
defaultcharset set to utf8 also).
At this point - all list pages display the correct characters
when retrieved from the database - indicating that the headers are
working. But - in phpmyadmin the letters are garbled, and garbled
on return on update forms (content management). I solved this by
adding the &#xxxx; equivalents in insert and update forms to
display the text correctly on the list pages - but again it's not
convenient to see all of this in phpmyadmin, as I'd like to be able
to read it there as it should be, and to dispense with the need to
add &#xxxx references on the insert and update forms.
So...a bit of searching, and I read that in order for the
international characters to display in phpmyadmin correctly, I
needed to amend my php page code so that for all instances where I
see the connection to the database, before the SELECT, INSERT and
DELETE queries, I need to add either mysql_set_charset('utf8',
$connection) or use three lines of code referencing mysql_query SET
NAMES, SET CHARACTER SET and SET COLLATION_CONNECTION for utf8.
I did that, and it removed all of my recordsets in the
sidebar menu! Not too good. I'm left with a task of rebuilding
pages now.
So I placed the mysql_set_charset line in the connection.php
file in the DW Connections folder below the connection there
instead. [I didn't precede the mysql etc line with a $ sign - I
wonder if that's the issue?]
With this change I could use the Insert forms to add the
international characters directly into the database and see through
phpmyadmin that all was hunky dory. But then the problems came with
first loads of the master list page.
So, I can get international characters into the database now
(which is a step in the right direction for me), using an insert
form on the website, but I still can't get the international
characters to display on the returned page on first loading eg on a
list of jobs. Note that the detail pages display fine when clicking
the master links, and when I return from the detail page back to
the master list - the characters are ok. They just don't seem to
display when the master page loads for the first time which is
really perplexing me.
I suspect that I need to add the mysql_set_charset line below
the $connection and before the selects, inserts etc at all
instances on the webpage, but this just removes the recordset from
the menu, so this doesn't seem to be a good option.
Can anyone point me in the right direction as I'm been stuck
on this for ages. It may be something simple like adding $ in front
of the mysql_query, but then again maybe not.
I've tried other forums - but people seem to be content with
viewing but not offering assistance. I don't believe that what I'm
doing here hasn't been done before....all I want is for my pages to
display international characters and for these to display correctly
in phpmyadmin so that when I insert, update and delete records
using webforms I don't have to resort to using &#xxx inserts.
Help please!

Answer 1

.oO(08Green)
> So...a bit of searching, and I read that in order for
the international
>characters to display in phpmyadmin correctly, I needed
to amend my php page
>code so that for all instances where I see the connection
to the database,
>before the SELECT, INSERT and DELETE queries, I need to
add either
>mysql_set_charset('utf8', $connection) or use three lines
of code referencing
>mysql_query SET NAMES, SET CHARACTER SET and SET
COLLATION_CONNECTION for utf8.
Usually you only need to send a SET NAMES 'utf8' right after
the
connection to the DB has been established. That way all data
that is
transferred between the DB and your script will be handled as
UTF-8.
> I did that, and it removed all of my recordsets in the
sidebar menu! Not too
>good. I'm left with a task of rebuilding pages now.
>
> So I placed the mysql_set_charset line in the
connection.php file in the DW
>Connections folder below the connection there instead. [I
didn't precede the
>mysql etc line with a $ sign - I wonder if that's the
issue?]
I've never used mysql_set_charset().
Here in my applications it always works like this:
* the default charset in my InnoDB tables is ISO-8859-1, I
only use
UTF-8 in the columns that really need it (text data, but not
INT or
DATE columns)
* SET NAMES 'utf8' at the beginning
* all files (HTML and PHP) are encoded as UTF-8 without BOM
* all pages delivered as UTF-8 (my pages are
script-generated, so I use
an appropriate header() call to define the content-type and
encoding)
That's it. Oh, and I don't use phpMyAdmin ...
> With this change I could use the Insert forms to add the
international
>characters directly into the database and see through
phpmyadmin that all was
>hunky dory. But then the problems came with first loads
of the master list
>page.
In the first part of your posting it sounded as if it worked
almost
correctly, before you tried to fix the broken phpMyAdmin
appearance.
Is that correct?
> So, I can get international characters into the database
now (which is a step
>in the right direction for me), using an insert form on
the website, but I
>still can't get the international characters to display
on the returned page on
>first loading eg on a list of jobs.
They did display correctly first, didn't they? So it seems
that you
broke your script just in order to fix some PMA problem.
Revert that.
Make your script work for normal input/output from/to a
website first
and don't worry about PMA for now.
What do you need PMA for BTW? It may have many other issues
as well and
should only be used if really necessary or if you're not
familiar with
the command line interface. The only thing that we are using
it is to
get a dump from a remote DB, where I don't have shell access
to call
mysqldump directly (yes, I could also write a little PHP
script for
that, it's already somewhere on my TODO). But here on my
local system I
always use the MySQL command prompt if I have to directly
work on some
tables or to import the dump from remote.
Anyway, if you need PMA, your might try their group or forum.
I'm sure
there's an FAQ as well. Maybe it's just a configuration
issue.
> I've tried other forums - but people seem to be content
with viewing but not
>offering assistance. I don't believe that what I'm doing
here hasn't been done
>before....all I want is for my pages to display
international characters and
>for these to display correctly in phpmyadmin so that when
I insert, update and
>delete records using webforms I don't have to resort to
using &#xxx inserts.
The bug here is PMA itself. ;-)
Micha