I've imported one of the arabic language packs from the download area however when the site is in english mode arabic content appears in wierd characters like so "ÞÓã ÇáÃÏÇÑÉ". However when I switch to the arabic language it appears properly, so how do I fix that ?
Arabic Language problems
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Make sure both languages are using the same character set:
Admin CP -> Languages & Phrases -> Language Manager -> [Edit Settings] -> HTML Character Set
Normally you would use UTF-8 for everything when your forum is supporting multiple languages.
Here is some other stuff to check:
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Would that mean I need to download an arabic package that has the same charset ? The current arabic package (and most of the ones I've seen) use windows-1256 while the english package (default one) uses ISO-8859-1. Are there any ill effects to just switching to UTF-8 ?
I've read the links provided and they too suggest a switch to UTF-8 but I don't know what other effects that might have, if the language package was written with the windows-1256 charset wouldn't there be issues if I used UTF-8 ?Comment
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Sometimes.
Some of my customers have recommended this third party utility for converting a forum to UTF-8:
Or here is a guide to start from scratch:
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well I can afford to restart my forums & databse (not much content yet) based on UTF-8 as that seems to be the easiest method, some of the comments on those pages seemed to indicate converting mid-stream is problematic. As long as it doesn't have any future ill-effects I'd be satisfied with that. Thanks for your help.Comment
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Well I can't seem to be able to convert the arabic language pack to use UTF-8, when I open it in any xml editor the arabic text is unreadable to begin with and thus decoding it is pointless. All the recent arabic packages use windows 1256, I think the last package that had UTF-8 was 3.5 or something like that which is way behind.Comment
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infact i can't seem to get the english language itself to display properly in UTF-8. Most if it is working but there are a few "????" in the acp and all phrases from the phrase manager also appear in question marks. I made sure to set the DB collation to UTF-8 before reinstalling VB as recommended here . Is there a UTF-8 english pack I need to download ? Why isn't it all in UTF-8 to begin with ? This is already turning into a big mess and I haven't even started using the forums yet.Comment
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There is no way I know of to convert an existing forum and database to UTF-8, nor is there any official UTF-8 version at this time.
However if this is a new install you can follow these third party instructions on how to change to UTF-8 in your database.
Steve Machol, former vBulletin Customer Support Manager (and NOT retired!)
Change CKEditor Colors to Match Style (for 4.1.4 and above)
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yes I've done that, its what introduced the problems to begin with. Now that the DB is transformed to UTF-8 (before the fresh install) the english master language has a few artifacts (????) and now I can't even see the arabic language pack as its all question marks too. I tried re-importing the english language, even tried to download a UTF-8 english pack from the german VB website but it didn't seem to remove the artifacts in the acp.Comment
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Sorry then, there is nothing we have officially that converts vB to UTF-8.Steve Machol, former vBulletin Customer Support Manager (and NOT retired!)
Change CKEditor Colors to Match Style (for 4.1.4 and above)
Steve Machol Photography
Mankind is the only creature smart enough to know its own history, and dumb enough to ignore it.
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Well i've seen many arabic VB forums so I know its possible, I gather they're not using UTF-8 to begin with and just sticking to a single language ? The only reason I'm going for UTF-8 is because of this recommendation and the one from my ImpEx thread
Originally posted by Jake BunceNormally you would use UTF-8 for everything when your forum is supporting multiple languages.
If I fail to find a solution, I'll likely make arabic the default language and not mess with its encoding, however would it be possible to hide (not disable) the english language and keep it only for the ACP ? This way I'd avoid users seeing the language artifacts and I can still use english if/when needed.Comment
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Arabic forums work fine with the default encoding. It does not require UTF-8.
You can disable the ability for users to choose a language by setting 'Allow User Selection' to 'No' in the Language Manager.Steve Machol, former vBulletin Customer Support Manager (and NOT retired!)
Change CKEditor Colors to Match Style (for 4.1.4 and above)
Steve Machol Photography
Mankind is the only creature smart enough to know its own history, and dumb enough to ignore it.
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Alright I can't wrap my head around this, I've done the following steps
1) create a fresh database and set it to utf8 (collation utf8_general_ci)
2) Alter the VB config.php file to use utf8
3) Install VB
4) Install an arabic UTF8 package from the acp
Yet the arabic language is still all question marks, whats the deal ? I've tried several different packages with different versions each on a clean setup and they all end up that way. I'm clearly missing something because if arabic doesn't work in UTF8 then why are there some packages for it already ?
Also I'd like to note that I've used Impex to import a drupal utf8 database into the forums and the arabic there appears properly when i set browser encoding to utf8. It seems there might be something wrong with importing the language itself ?Comment
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Here is a guide for UTF-8 imports:
Steve Machol, former vBulletin Customer Support Manager (and NOT retired!)
Change CKEditor Colors to Match Style (for 4.1.4 and above)
Steve Machol Photography
Mankind is the only creature smart enough to know its own history, and dumb enough to ignore it.
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well the import is working relatively well, its the actual forum setup that isn't. When everything is UTF8 and I run the import, I get all my stuff imported however the forum interface is the problem. All the UTF-8 arabic language packs that I've imported are not working, giving me "?????" instead. So while the forums & topics have been imported successfully, its the forum interface thats not being translated due to the language packages not working properly. Even if I don't run the import, I still can't get arabic language packages to work in utf8.Comment
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