default UTF-8

[Wayne Luke]

Yes. Generally if you had the line in your config.php commented out before upgrading, you should leave it that way unless the upgrade script tells you otherwise.

[-=|zami|=-]

probably, then, the problem occurred in migrating from VB4 to VB5, right?

in practical and objective terms: there is no solution, right?

[NLP-er]

After update from vb4 to vb5 special characters are just ? signs. I had utf-8 before and have utf-8 now. I had uncommented $config['Mysqli']['charset'] = 'utf8'; before. Now ? are displayed with and without that configuration. New texts are OK but old ones are broken. What to do?

[NLP-er]

Correction: new texts are OK withaout the option. With the option new texts are broken too. Old texts are broken in booth configurations. What to do?

[Wayne Luke]

The option is outdated and can cause problems with modern servers. It was put into place for MySQL 4.1. Today, all versions of MySQL supported use UTF-8 to store their data by default. However, character sets (i.e. Latin1) and collations (latin1_swedish_ci) can break UTF-8 character display. vBulletin 4.X didn't understand UTF-8 at all. It would update characters to their HTML Entities. vBulletin 5 does understand UTF-8 so will not convert these characters to their HTML Entities. This is a side effect of trying to apply a decade of software changes at once.

You should convert your database to UTF8MB4 for the best results. We provide scripts for this. Please look at the Database Tools article for information on updating your site to UTFMB4. This will provide the best results going forward and enable functionality like UTF-8 combination characters. These combination characters are necessary to support the 1000+ emoji that are available on most devices these days.

[Wayne Luke]

UTF-8 encoded sample plain-text file
‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾‾

Markus Kuhn [ˈmaʳkʊs kuːn] <[email protected]> — 1999-08-20


The ASCII compatible UTF-8 encoding of ISO 10646 and Unicode
plain-text files is defined in RFC 2279 and in ISO 10646-1 Annex R.


Using Unicode/UTF-8, you can write in emails and source code things such as

Mathematics and Sciences:

  ∮ E⋅da = Q,  n → ∞, ∑ f(i) = ∏ g(i), ∀x∈ℝ: ⌈x⌉ = −⌊−x⌋, α ∧ ¬β = ¬(¬α ∨ β),

  ℕ ⊆ ℕ₀ ⊂ ℤ ⊂ ℚ ⊂ ℝ ⊂ ℂ, ⊥ < a ≠ b ≡ c ≤ d ≪ ⊤ ⇒ (A ⇔ B),

  2H₂ + O₂ ⇌ 2H₂O, R = 4.7 kΩ, ⌀ 200 mm

Linguistics and dictionaries:

  ði ıntəˈnæʃənəl fəˈnɛtık əsoʊsiˈeıʃn
  Y [ˈʏpsilɔn], Yen [jɛn], Yoga [ˈjoːgɑ]

APL:

  ((V⍳V)=⍳⍴V)/V←,V    ⌷←⍳→⍴∆∇⊃‾⍎⍕⌈

Nicer typography in plain text files:

  ╔══════════════════════════════════════════╗
  ║                                          ║
  ║   • ‘single’ and “double” quotes         ║
  ║                                          ║
  ║   • Curly apostrophes: “We’ve been here” ║
  ║                                          ║
  ║   • Latin-1 apostrophe and accents: '´`  ║
  ║                                          ║
  ║   • ‚deutsche‘ „Anführungszeichen“       ║
  ║                                          ║
  ║   • †, ‡, ‰, •, 3–4, —, −5/+5, ™, …      ║
  ║                                          ║
  ║   • ASCII safety test: 1lI|, 0OD, 8B     ║
  ║                      ╭─────────╮         ║
  ║   • the euro symbol: │ 14.95 € │         ║
  ║                      ╰─────────╯         ║
  ╚══════════════════════════════════════════╝

Greek (in Polytonic):

  The Greek anthem:

  Σὲ γνωρίζω ἀπὸ τὴν κόψη
  τοῦ σπαθιοῦ τὴν τρομερή,
  σὲ γνωρίζω ἀπὸ τὴν ὄψη
  ποὺ μὲ βία μετράει τὴ γῆ.

  ᾿Απ᾿ τὰ κόκκαλα βγαλμένη
  τῶν ῾Ελλήνων τὰ ἱερά
  καὶ σὰν πρῶτα ἀνδρειωμένη
  χαῖρε, ὦ χαῖρε, ᾿Ελευθεριά!

  From a speech of Demosthenes in the 4th century BC:

  Οὐχὶ ταὐτὰ παρίσταταί μοι γιγνώσκειν, ὦ ἄνδρες ᾿Αθηναῖοι,
  ὅταν τ᾿ εἰς τὰ πράγματα ἀποβλέψω καὶ ὅταν πρὸς τοὺς
  λόγους οὓς ἀκούω· τοὺς μὲν γὰρ λόγους περὶ τοῦ
  τιμωρήσασθαι Φίλιππον ὁρῶ γιγνομένους, τὰ δὲ πράγματ᾿
  εἰς τοῦτο προήκοντα,  ὥσθ᾿ ὅπως μὴ πεισόμεθ᾿ αὐτοὶ
  πρότερον κακῶς σκέψασθαι δέον. οὐδέν οὖν ἄλλο μοι δοκοῦσιν
  οἱ τὰ τοιαῦτα λέγοντες ἢ τὴν ὑπόθεσιν, περὶ ἧς βουλεύεσθαι,
  οὐχὶ τὴν οὖσαν παριστάντες ὑμῖν ἁμαρτάνειν. ἐγὼ δέ, ὅτι μέν
  ποτ᾿ ἐξῆν τῇ πόλει καὶ τὰ αὑτῆς ἔχειν ἀσφαλῶς καὶ Φίλιππον
  τιμωρήσασθαι, καὶ μάλ᾿ ἀκριβῶς οἶδα· ἐπ᾿ ἐμοῦ γάρ, οὐ πάλαι
  γέγονεν ταῦτ᾿ ἀμφότερα· νῦν μέντοι πέπεισμαι τοῦθ᾿ ἱκανὸν
  προλαβεῖν ἡμῖν εἶναι τὴν πρώτην, ὅπως τοὺς συμμάχους
  σώσομεν. ἐὰν γὰρ τοῦτο βεβαίως ὑπάρξῃ, τότε καὶ περὶ τοῦ
  τίνα τιμωρήσεταί τις καὶ ὃν τρόπον ἐξέσται σκοπεῖν· πρὶν δὲ
  τὴν ἀρχὴν ὀρθῶς ὑποθέσθαι, μάταιον ἡγοῦμαι περὶ τῆς
  τελευτῆς ὁντινοῦν ποιεῖσθαι λόγον.

  Δημοσθένους, Γ´ ᾿Ολυνθιακὸς

Georgian:

  From a Unicode conference invitation:

  გთხოვთ ახლავე გაიაროთ რეგისტრაცია Unicode-ის მეათე საერთაშორისო
  კონფერენციაზე დასასწრებად, რომელიც გაიმართება 10-12 მარტს,
  ქ. მაინცში, გერმანიაში. კონფერენცია შეჰკრებს ერთად მსოფლიოს
  ექსპერტებს ისეთ დარგებში როგორიცაა ინტერნეტი და Unicode-ი,
  ინტერნაციონალიზაცია და ლოკალიზაცია, Unicode-ის გამოყენება
  ოპერაციულ სისტემებსა, და გამოყენებით პროგრამებში, შრიფტებში,
  ტექსტების დამუშავებასა და მრავალენოვან კომპიუტერულ სისტემებში.

Russian:

  From a Unicode conference invitation:

  Зарегистрируйтесь сейчас на Десятую Международную Конференцию по
  Unicode, которая состоится 10-12 марта 1997 года в Майнце в Германии.
  Конференция соберет широкий круг экспертов по  вопросам глобального
  Интернета и Unicode, локализации и интернационализации, воплощению и
  применению Unicode в различных операционных системах и программных
  приложениях, шрифтах, верстке и многоязычных компьютерных системах.

Thai (UCS Level 2):

  Excerpt from a poetry on The Romance of The Three Kingdoms (a Chinese
  classic 'San Gua'):

  [----------------------------|------------------------]
    ๏ แผ่นดินฮั่นเสื่อมโทรมแสนสังเวช  พระปกเกศกองบู๊กู้ขึ้นใหม่
  สิบสองกษัตริย์ก่อนหน้าแลถัดไป       สององค์ไซร้โง่เขลาเบาปัญญา
    ทรงนับถือขันทีเป็นที่พึ่ง           บ้านเมืองจึงวิปริตเป็นนักหนา
  โฮจิ๋นเรียกทัพทั่วหัวเมืองมา         หมายจะฆ่ามดชั่วตัวสำคัญ
    เหมือนขับไสไล่เสือจากเคหา      รับหมาป่าเข้ามาเลยอาสัญ
  ฝ่ายอ้องอุ้นยุแยกให้แตกกัน          ใช้สาวนั้นเป็นชนวนชื่นชวนใจ
    พลันลิฉุยกุยกีกลับก่อเหตุ          ช่างอาเพศจริงหนาฟ้าร้องไห้
  ต้องรบราฆ่าฟันจนบรรลัย           ฤๅหาใครค้ำชูกู้บรรลังก์ ฯ

  (The above is a two-column text. If combining characters are handled
  correctly, the lines of the second column should be aligned with the
  | character above.)

Ethiopian:

  Proverbs in the Amharic language:

  ሰማይ አይታረስ ንጉሥ አይከሰስ።
  ብላ ካለኝ እንደአባቴ በቆመጠኝ።
  ጌጥ ያለቤቱ ቁምጥና ነው።
  ደሀ በሕልሙ ቅቤ ባይጠጣ ንጣት በገደለው።
  የአፍ ወለምታ በቅቤ አይታሽም።
  አይጥ በበላ ዳዋ ተመታ።
  ሲተረጉሙ ይደረግሙ።
  ቀስ በቀስ፥ ዕንቁላል በእግሩ ይሄዳል።
  ድር ቢያብር አንበሳ ያስር።
  ሰው እንደቤቱ እንጅ እንደ ጉረቤቱ አይተዳደርም።
  እግዜር የከፈተውን ጉሮሮ ሳይዘጋው አይድርም።
  የጎረቤት ሌባ፥ ቢያዩት ይስቅ ባያዩት ያጠልቅ።
  ሥራ ከመፍታት ልጄን ላፋታት።
  ዓባይ ማደሪያ የለው፥ ግንድ ይዞ ይዞራል።
  የእስላም አገሩ መካ የአሞራ አገሩ ዋርካ።
  ተንጋሎ ቢተፉ ተመልሶ ባፉ።
  ወዳጅህ ማር ቢሆን ጨርስህ አትላሰው።
  እግርህን በፍራሽህ ልክ ዘርጋ።

Runes:

  ᚻᛖ ᚳᚹᚫᚦ ᚦᚫᛏ ᚻᛖ ᛒᚢᛞᛖ ᚩᚾ ᚦᚫᛗ ᛚᚪᚾᛞᛖ ᚾᚩᚱᚦᚹᛖᚪᚱᛞᚢᛗ ᚹᛁᚦ ᚦᚪ ᚹᛖᛥᚫ

  (Old English, which transcribed into Latin reads 'He cwaeth that he
  bude thaem lande northweardum with tha Westsae.' and means 'He said
  that he lived in the northern land near the Western Sea.')

Braille:

  ⡌⠁⠧⠑ ⠼⠁⠒  ⡍⠜⠇⠑⠹⠰⠎ ⡣⠕⠌

  ⡍⠜⠇⠑⠹ ⠺⠁⠎ ⠙⠑⠁⠙⠒ ⠞⠕ ⠃⠑⠛⠔ ⠺⠊⠹⠲ ⡹⠻⠑ ⠊⠎ ⠝⠕ ⠙⠳⠃⠞
  ⠱⠁⠞⠑⠧⠻ ⠁⠃⠳⠞ ⠹⠁⠞⠲ ⡹⠑ ⠗⠑⠛⠊⠌⠻ ⠕⠋ ⠙⠊⠎ ⠃⠥⠗⠊⠁⠇ ⠺⠁⠎
  ⠎⠊⠛⠝⠫ ⠃⠹ ⠹⠑ ⠊⠇⠻⠛⠹⠍⠁⠝⠂ ⠹⠑ ⠊⠇⠻⠅⠂ ⠹⠑ ⠥⠝⠙⠻⠞⠁⠅⠻⠂
  ⠁⠝⠙ ⠹⠑ ⠡⠊⠑⠋ ⠍⠳⠗⠝⠻⠲ ⡎⠊⠗⠕⠕⠛⠑ ⠎⠊⠛⠝⠫ ⠊⠞⠲ ⡁⠝⠙
  ⡎⠊⠗⠕⠕⠛⠑⠰⠎ ⠝⠁⠍⠑ ⠺⠁⠎ ⠛⠕⠕⠙ ⠥⠏⠕⠝ ⠰⡡⠁⠝⠛⠑⠂ ⠋⠕⠗ ⠁⠝⠹⠹⠔⠛ ⠙⠑
  ⠡⠕⠎⠑ ⠞⠕ ⠏⠥⠞ ⠙⠊⠎ ⠙⠁⠝⠙ ⠞⠕⠲

  ⡕⠇⠙ ⡍⠜⠇⠑⠹ ⠺⠁⠎ ⠁⠎ ⠙⠑⠁⠙ ⠁⠎ ⠁ ⠙⠕⠕⠗⠤⠝⠁⠊⠇⠲

  ⡍⠔⠙⠖ ⡊ ⠙⠕⠝⠰⠞ ⠍⠑⠁⠝ ⠞⠕ ⠎⠁⠹ ⠹⠁⠞ ⡊ ⠅⠝⠪⠂ ⠕⠋ ⠍⠹
  ⠪⠝ ⠅⠝⠪⠇⠫⠛⠑⠂ ⠱⠁⠞ ⠹⠻⠑ ⠊⠎ ⠏⠜⠞⠊⠊⠥⠇⠜⠇⠹ ⠙⠑⠁⠙ ⠁⠃⠳⠞
  ⠁ ⠙⠕⠕⠗⠤⠝⠁⠊⠇⠲ ⡊ ⠍⠊⠣⠞ ⠙⠁⠧⠑ ⠃⠑⠲ ⠔⠊⠇⠔⠫⠂ ⠍⠹⠎⠑⠇⠋⠂ ⠞⠕
  ⠗⠑⠛⠜⠙ ⠁ ⠊⠕⠋⠋⠔⠤⠝⠁⠊⠇ ⠁⠎ ⠹⠑ ⠙⠑⠁⠙⠑⠌ ⠏⠊⠑⠊⠑ ⠕⠋ ⠊⠗⠕⠝⠍⠕⠝⠛⠻⠹
  ⠔ ⠹⠑ ⠞⠗⠁⠙⠑⠲ ⡃⠥⠞ ⠹⠑ ⠺⠊⠎⠙⠕⠍ ⠕⠋ ⠳⠗ ⠁⠝⠊⠑⠌⠕⠗⠎
  ⠊⠎ ⠔ ⠹⠑ ⠎⠊⠍⠊⠇⠑⠆ ⠁⠝⠙ ⠍⠹ ⠥⠝⠙⠁⠇⠇⠪⠫ ⠙⠁⠝⠙⠎
  ⠩⠁⠇⠇ ⠝⠕⠞ ⠙⠊⠌⠥⠗⠃ ⠊⠞⠂ ⠕⠗ ⠹⠑ ⡊⠳⠝⠞⠗⠹⠰⠎ ⠙⠕⠝⠑ ⠋⠕⠗⠲ ⡹⠳
  ⠺⠊⠇⠇ ⠹⠻⠑⠋⠕⠗⠑ ⠏⠻⠍⠊⠞ ⠍⠑ ⠞⠕ ⠗⠑⠏⠑⠁⠞⠂ ⠑⠍⠏⠙⠁⠞⠊⠊⠁⠇⠇⠹⠂ ⠹⠁⠞
  ⡍⠜⠇⠑⠹ ⠺⠁⠎ ⠁⠎ ⠙⠑⠁⠙ ⠁⠎ ⠁ ⠙⠕⠕⠗⠤⠝⠁⠊⠇⠲

  (The first couple of paragraphs of "A Christmas Carol" by Dickens)

Compact font selection example text:

  ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ /0123456789
  abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz £©µÀÆÖÞßéöÿ
  –—‘“”„†•…‰™œŠŸž€ ΑΒΓΔΩαβγδω АБВГДабвгд
  ∀∂∈ℝ∧∪≡∞ ↑↗↨↻⇣ ┐┼╔╘░►☺♀ fi�⑀₂ἠḂӥẄɐː⍎אԱა

Greetings in various languages:

  Hello world, Καλημέρα κόσμε, コンニチハ

Box drawing alignment tests:                                          █
                                                                      ▉
  ╔══╦══╗  ┌──┬──┐  ╭──┬──╮  ╭──┬──╮  ┏━━┳━━┓  ┎┒┏┑   ╷  ╻ ┏┯┓ ┌┰┐    ▊ ╱╲╱╲╳╳╳
  ║┌─╨─┐║  │╔═╧═╗│  │╒═╪═╕│  │╓─╁─╖│  ┃┌─╂─┐┃  ┗╃╄┙  ╶┼╴╺╋╸┠┼┨ ┝╋┥    ▋ ╲╱╲╱╳╳╳
  ║│╲ ╱│║  │║   ║│  ││ │ ││  │║ ┃ ║│  ┃│ ╿ │┃  ┍╅╆┓   ╵  ╹ ┗┷┛ └┸┘    ▌ ╱╲╱╲╳╳╳
  ╠╡ ╳ ╞╣  ├╢   ╟┤  ├┼─┼─┼┤  ├╫─╂─╫┤  ┣┿╾┼╼┿┫  ┕┛┖┚     ┌┄┄┐ ╎ ┏┅┅┓ ┋ ▍ ╲╱╲╱╳╳╳
  ║│╱ ╲│║  │║   ║│  ││ │ ││  │║ ┃ ║│  ┃│ ╽ │┃  ░░▒▒▓▓██ ┊  ┆ ╎ ╏  ┇ ┋ ▎
  ║└─╥─┘║  │╚═╤═╝│  │╘═╪═╛│  │╙─╀─╜│  ┃└─╂─┘┃  ░░▒▒▓▓██ ┊  ┆ ╎ ╏  ┇ ┋ ▏
  ╚══╩══╝  └──┴──┘  ╰──┴──╯  ╰──┴──╯  ┗━━┻━━┛           └╌╌┘ ╎ ┗╍╍┛ ┋  ▁▂▃▄▅▆▇█

[Wayne Luke]

😉😊😚🙂😎😚🤨😑😾😸👺👹🤡👿👾🤖🙀🙀😾👧👦🧒👶🙊

[NLP-er]

Thanks. I will do full backup and use scripts. Hope this will help. Will let you know.

[NLP-er]

Questoins about scripts - relating to instructions from site you gave:
Point 8 - and what if some tables are MyIsam and some InnoDB? Should I use the script? For sxample 'contentpriority' is MyIsam, but 'contenttype' is InnoDB.
Point 9 - and what if U use English and not English? (tranlsation plugin was and will be used after succesfup update). Should I use the script? I suppose not, but not sure.
Point 10 - can I use it also for additional tables (configuraition allows to add those) which in puspose are still MyIsam (cache tambles)?

[Wayne Luke]

Point 8 - the myisamfix script in the sequence will update tables to innodb. As necessary.
Point 9 - Have no idea how the translation plugin works. I would assume it works best with UTF-8 data though since the is the international standard for translations.
Point 10 - vBulletin's cache tables should never be MyISAM. This is the single largest cause of performance problems with modern databases. Otherwise, I don't know what you mean about additional tables. The scripts are designed to work with vBulletin 5 tables. Changes to any other tables are not tested or evaluated.

[NLP-er]

Point 10 - by additional tables I mean what I wrote: "configuraition allows to add those" - so tables added in script configuration. More preciselly in $extraVbTables = array('tablename');

BTW - why cache shoudn't be don in MyISAM? Arent those best for lot of reads and smal ammount of writes saving on not handling transactions?

Also - where can I drop vB cache? I see that aster changes one page is still bad, but other is OK. Don't know is it still issue with encoding or some cache.

[Wayne Luke]

BTW - why cache shoudn't be don in MyISAM? Arent those best for lot of reads and smal ammount of writes saving on not handling transactions?

MyISAM isn't really best for anything because every access (read or write) locks the entire table. This causes queries to be backlogged. In the long run, developers end up creating inefficient long queries but use less of queries overall because of this. However database access time is still increased and services like PHP are just waiting for results.

INNODB promotes using a lot of efficient small queries. It allows reads and writes on the same table at the same time, as long as they aren't accessing the exact same row. These small queries run quicker and are easier to optimize. This gives MySQL more time to run queries and there is less of a backlog on most systems.

There are only three tables in vBulletin 5 that should by MyISAM. language, phrase, and userfield. The reason for this is because there is absolutely no way on knowing the actual sizes of these tables and INNODB tables are limited to a row length of 8192 bytes on most MySQL installations. MySQL 8 handles this limitation better by moving more char and varchar fields to the BLOB space and just using 4 bytes for each to hold the addresses.

However, the current minimum version of MySQL supported is 5.6. So the software must be developed within its limitations. Soon this version will be increased to 5.7 but I suspect that will cause problems as many hosts don't upgrade their database servers as often as they should. I understand this as it is a lengthy process and will require sites to be down. Ideally, everyone should be using MySQL 8.X but I don't foresee that happening this decade. Especially since some people think MariaDB has a "better" open source paradigm when it is just a fork of MySQL.

The fact that we're still talking about the benefits of INNODB over MyISAM in 2022 shows how slow people are to update. We've been recommending using INNODB for the majority of vBulletin tables since vBulletin 4 was released in 2009.

[Wayne Luke]

Also - where can I drop vB cache? I see that aster changes one page is still bad, but other is OK. Don't know is it still issue with encoding or some cache.

Drop is the wrong word. You mean truncate or delete the contents.

In the AdminCP go to Maintenance → Delete System Cache. Same place as in vBulletin 4.X.

[NLP-er]

Thx. Unfortunatelly after using db scripts some characters are still broken. Will rebuild from backup and try again with point 9 too.

[NLP-er]

I tried 3 times with different combinations. After db scripts german signs are corrected, but not polish or vietmamise and probably lot more. What to do?

[Wayne Luke]

Make sure your languages are using a UTF-8 character set and a UTF-8 Locale. The Locale will need to be installed at the server level if not available already.

Most UTF-8 locales simply have .UTF-8 added to the locale for the language.

[NLP-er]

UTF-8 was used in vB4 so I don't understand why it is broken after upgrade.UTF-8 was set for mysql connection. It was set (and still is) in 'HTML Character Set' for Language Manager (English(US)). It was set for most of vBulletin tables (utf8_general_ci) for some it is set latin1_swedish_ci (have no idea why vBulletin created tables with 2 different encodings).

You wrote to make sure my languages are using UTF-8 - in my knowdlege they are (mysql connection setting and language manager setting). Where I suppose to check what locale are used?