Special Characters Display as Codes in Posts and Post Titles

[enivid]

All the special characters inside forum posts and thread titles suddenly started to display as codes (for example, ¡ ). You can see an example post here.

Before that they were displaying perfectly. It looks like vBulletin started to escape the characters for some reason (& gets converted to & and thus special characters don't display correctly).

I am using VBulletin 3.8.6. How do I fix this?

[borbole]

All the special characters inside forum posts and thread titles suddenly started to display as codes (for example, ¡ ). You can see an example post here.

Before that they were displaying perfectly. It looks like vBulletin started to escape the characters for some reason (& gets converted to & and thus special characters don't display correctly).

I am using VBulletin 3.8.6. How do I fix this?

Did you do any modifications before getting this issue?

You can fix them at the database if you want to. Let me know and I will post the query you need to do that.

[enivid]

Did you do any modifications before getting this issue?

You can fix them at the database if you want to. Let me know and I will post the query you need to do that.

As far as I remember, I've updated vBSEO config (without changing anything) before that. But it looks like the problem isn't in vBSEO, as if I disable it, the problem still persists.

Please, let me know if you have some solution.

[borbole]

Have a look at this thread and try the solution I mentioned there. Hope it helps.

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?357369-Charset-problem-after-importing-from-IPB3&p=2010517#post2010517

[enivid]

Wait, I don't have weird symbols, the characters are stored as their html codes in DB but when vBulletin outputs them for some reason it applies something like PHP's htmlspecialchars() on it.
Updating the DB won't help here, since all the new posts with the Spanish characters I add result in the same problem - they are stored to DB as codes, but are outputted with escaped characters.

[Romchik®]

These users have the same problem:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?357642-Problem-with-umlauts-after-moving-from-3.8.4-pl2-to-3.8.6

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?357554-problem-with-accented-letters-after-upgrade-to-3.8.6

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?357241-just-upgraded-3.8.6-now-i-get-amp-163-instead-of-%A3-from-my-rss-feeds-need-help

I have this problem too after update from 3.8.4 to 3.8.6. Language on the forum - cp1251.
Other my forum at 3.8.4 with same language - no problem!

[Yves R.]

http://tracker.vbulletin.com/browse/VBIII-12794

[enivid]

These users have the same problem: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showt...4-pl2-to-3.8.6 http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showt...grade-to-3.8.6 http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showt...eeds-need-help I have this problem too after update from 3.8.4 to 3.8.6. Language on the forum - cp1251. Other my forum at 3.8.4 with same language - no problem!

Yeah, it looks like the same problem. And this problem is not about encoding, it's about special character filtering by vBulletin. I've upgraded to 3.8.6 only 3 days ago, so, probably that was that and I simply didn't notice it until that time. I think some official from VBS should comment on this.

[enivid]

http://tracker.vbulletin.com/browse/VBIII-12794

You are my personal hero now !
I've uploaded old class-core.php and it worked fine. Thanks!
Of course, it's just a temporary solution and I hope VB will fix it in the next version.

[ik7jwy]

You are my personal hero now !
I've uploaded old class-core.php and it worked fine. Thanks!
Of course, it's just a temporary solution and I hope VB will fix it in the next version.

Yeah ! I tried right now (after backup of SQL and forum folder) to upload the old class-core.php (3.8.5) overwriting the new one (3.8.6) and now the problem is fixed !

Anyway, when the bug will be fixed by vB team, or when will be available a 3.8.7 version, it will be necessary to upload again the 3.8.6 version of class-core.php before upgrade ?

Thanks

[borbole]

Wait, I don't have weird symbols, the characters are stored as their html codes in DB but when vBulletin outputs them for some reason it applies something like PHP's htmlspecialchars() on it.
Updating the DB won't help here, since all the new posts with the Spanish characters I add result in the same problem - they are stored to DB as codes, but are outputted with escaped characters.

Ah, my bad then. Sorry for the misunderstanding. And glad to see that you solved the issue.

[enivid]

Any idea how to fix this for version 3.8.8? Because class_core.php from 3.8.5 does not work with 3.8.8...

[Mark.B]

This was fixed in 3.8.7 so if you're having issues in 3.8.8 it is potentially a different problem.

Please start your own thread with full details of the issue.

[enivid]

It appears to be the same issue. It was helped by commenting out a condition on lines 3423-3425 of class_core.php with:

        if (($matches[3] >= 32 AND $matches[3] <= 126)
            /*OR
            ($matches[3] >= 160 AND $matches[3] <= 255)*/)