[Solved] Character set problems latin1 and utf-8 in VanillaForums*

Cuongx

I know Vanilla uses PDO for connecting to MySQL. But I need it to use my existing database that was created with mysql_query before. (a part of integration)
I did use mysql_query with "set names utf8", now I create new app in Vanilla that uses this data. My app outputs wrong utf-8 characters.
When looking into database, I see PDO in Vanilla encodes utf-8 different from mysql_query although both of them using "set names utf8" and "utf8_unicode_ci" collation.
How can PDO in Vanilla and mysql_query live together?

Todd

I've never seen this problem, but encoding issues can be a real pain. Are you sure your tables are utf8? Try show create table [TableName] in mysql.

Cuongx

Thanks Todd.
I find the root cause when executing [SHOW VARIABLES LIKE 'character%'] command. My MySQL server shows:
character_set_database latin1
character_set_server latin1
When installing Vanilla, it sets my db to latin1 though my eyes see utf8_unicode_ci.
My old data is truly utf-8.
Now I have to convert them into the same characterset.

UnderDog

When installing Vanilla, it sets my db to latin1 though my eyes see utf8_unicode_ci.

Great find! Would you mind if I edited the title a bit, so we can give this topic extra tags and continue to figure out how to fix the problem?

Cuongx

@UnderDog: You're welcome