Problems with Apache and special characters

#1 July 17th, 2005, 10:59 AM

Hi.

Running Apache/2.0.52 on Linux, I've got problems with special
characters
(Spanish tildes) on my pages. I can see them correctly on my machine
(España), but
not on my web server (EspaÃ±a).

My test page is:
-------------------------
<html>
<h1>España</h1>
</html>
-------------------------

Within my 'httpd.conf' I set:
-------------------
AddDefaultCharset ISO-8859-1
-------------------

I don't know wether it's a problem of my webpages or of my webserver.
Any suggestion? Thank you very much.

#2 July 17th, 2005, 10:59 AM

.oO(tarmstrong@gmail.com)
[color=blue]
>Running Apache/2.0.52 on Linux, I've got problems with special
>characters
>(Spanish tildes) on my pages. I can see them correctly on my machine
>(España), but
>not on my web server (EspaÃ±a).[/color]

Post an URL.

Micha

#3 July 17th, 2005, 10:59 AM

tarmstrong@gmail.com wrote:[color=blue]
> Running Apache/2.0.52 on Linux, I've got problems with special
> characters (Spanish tildes) on my pages. I can see them
> correctly on my machine (España), but
> not on my web server (EspaÃ±a).[/color]

Looks like some sort of Unicode.
[color=blue]
> My test page is:
> -------------------------
> <html>
> <h1>España</h1>
> </html>
> -------------------------[/color]

Are you sure your test page isn't encoded in UTF-8 or Unicode or
whatever (something different than ISO-8859-1)?
[color=blue]
> Within my 'httpd.conf' I set:
> -------------------
> AddDefaultCharset ISO-8859-1
> -------------------
>
> I don't know wether it's a problem of my webpages or of my webserver.[/color]

It's a problem of both and neither: they're not in synch!
[color=blue]
> Any suggestion? Thank you very much.[/color]

Try:

<h1>España</h1>

and the encodings for your server and pages no longer matter :-)

--
Mail to my "From:" address is readable by all at http://www.dodgeit.com/
== ** ## !! ------------------------------------------------ !! ## ** ==
TEXT-ONLY mail to the whole "Reply-To:" address ("My Name" <my@address>)
may bypass my spam filter. If it does, I may reply from another address!

#4 July 17th, 2005, 10:59 AM

.oO(Pedro Graca)
[color=blue]
>Try:
>
> <h1>España</h1>
>
>and the encodings for your server and pages no longer matter :-)[/color]

I would rather fix the encoding issue instead of using entities.

Micha

#5 July 17th, 2005, 11:00 AM

tarmstrong@gmail.com wrote:[color=blue]
> Hi.
>
> Running Apache/2.0.52 on Linux, I've got problems with special
> characters
> (Spanish tildes) on my pages. I can see them correctly on my machine
> (España), but
> not on my web server (EspaÃ±a).
>
> My test page is:
> -------------------------
> <html>
> <h1>España</h1>
> </html>
> -------------------------
>
> Within my 'httpd.conf' I set:
> -------------------
> AddDefaultCharset ISO-8859-1
> -------------------[/color]

Try using UTF-8 instead. Your file is being served as ISO-8859-1 but
it's really encoded with UTF-8 (you get Ã± when you try to decode a
UTF-8 'ñ' with the ISO-8859-1 decoder).
[color=blue]
>
> I don't know wether it's a problem of my webpages or of my webserver.
> Any suggestion? Thank you very much.[/color]

You can else:
-tell your text editor to save your files using ISO-8859-1, or
-place the appropiate <meta> tag in your files so that the server and/or
browser know how to decode the file.

#6 July 17th, 2005, 11:01 AM

Dani CS wrote:
[color=blue]
> -place the appropiate <meta> tag in your files[/color]

Fine; but that's no substitute for HTTP headers. Even
though a server might form HTTP headers from http-equivs, I
see no reason not to remove any doubt and instruct the
server yourself.

--
Jock

#7 July 17th, 2005, 11:01 AM

John Dunlop wrote:[color=blue]
> Dani CS wrote:
>
>[color=green]
>>-place the appropiate <meta> tag in your files[/color]
>
>
> Fine; but that's no substitute for HTTP headers. Even
> though a server might form HTTP headers from http-equivs, I
> see no reason not to remove any doubt and instruct the
> server yourself.
>[/color]

Instructing the server is easy when all the documents use the same
encoding. But this situation is far from real in many environments (eg.
my own machine -- Kate on Linux insists on UTF-8, but Crimson Editor on
Windows is stuck with ISO-8859-1).

However, there's a "per-file" way to instruct the server on encodings,
apart from <meta> tags:

<?php header("Content-Tye: text/html; charset=..."); ?>

This should work fine, but should be placed at the begining of those
files that don't use the default encoding assumed by the server.

Moreover, I believe that some programs exist that automagically guess
the encoding of a file; such a program could be executed for each file
served, and its output prepended in a Content-Type header. Downsides
are: significant performance hit, and possible wrong guesses that drive
the cliente mad.

Un saludo,
Dani.

#8 July 17th, 2005, 11:01 AM

.oO(Dani CS)
[color=blue]
>Instructing the server is easy when all the documents use the same
>encoding.[/color]

I consider that as it should be.
[color=blue]
>But this situation is far from real in many environments (eg.
>my own machine -- Kate on Linux insists on UTF-8, but Crimson Editor on
>Windows is stuck with ISO-8859-1).[/color]

I would decide for one encoding and then only use software that's
capable of handling it.

Micha

#9 July 17th, 2005, 11:01 AM

.oO(John Dunlop)
[color=blue]
>Dani CS wrote:
>[color=green]
>> -place the appropiate <meta> tag in your files[/color]
>
>Fine; but that's no substitute for HTTP headers. Even
>though a server might form HTTP headers from http-equivs, I
>see no reason not to remove any doubt and instruct the
>server yourself.[/color]

The whole situation with the meta-charset-thing is rather paradox: The
information about the used encoding is stored inside the document, so
the UA has to decode the document first to know how to decode it ...

Stupid.

Micha

#10 July 17th, 2005, 11:01 AM

"Michael Fesser" <netizen@gmx.net> wrote in message
news:hp7vr0d2p1gpaem0uqu0theupl7cd90083@4ax.com...[color=blue]
> .oO(John Dunlop)
>[color=green]
>>Dani CS wrote:
>>[color=darkred]
>>> -place the appropiate <meta> tag in your files[/color]
>>
>>Fine; but that's no substitute for HTTP headers. Even
>>though a server might form HTTP headers from http-equivs, I
>>see no reason not to remove any doubt and instruct the
>>server yourself.[/color]
>
> The whole situation with the meta-charset-thing is rather paradox: The
> information about the used encoding is stored inside the document, so
> the UA has to decode the document first to know how to decode it ...
>
> Stupid.
>
> Micha[/color]

Not if you supply that information on an HTTP header, as in:-

header('content-type:text/html; charset=UTF-8');

--
Tony Marston
http://www.tonymarston.net

#11 July 17th, 2005, 11:01 AM

Michael Fesser wrote:
[color=blue]
> The whole situation with the meta-charset-thing is rather paradox: The
> information about the used encoding is stored inside the document, so
> the UA has to decode the document first to know how to decode it ...[/color]

The HTML4.01 spec says:

| The META declaration must only be used when the character
| encoding is organized such that ASCII-valued bytes stand
| for ASCII characters (at least until the META element is
| parsed). META declarations should appear as early as
| possible in the HEAD element.

http://www.w3.org/TR/html401/charset...-char-encoding

See also news:c5jjd9$2elhn$1@ID-114100.news.uni-berlin.de .

(Sorry, I don't know how best to refer to threads in groups-
beta (spit). That's the message-id of the first article.)

--
Jock

#12 July 17th, 2005, 11:01 AM

.oO(Tony Marston)
[color=blue]
>Not if you supply that information on an HTTP header, as in:-
>
>header('content-type:text/html; charset=UTF-8');[/color]

That's how it's supposed to be. If I do it correctly in the server's
response header I don't need that meta-thing anymore.

Micha

#13 July 17th, 2005, 11:01 AM

.oO(John Dunlop)
[color=blue]
>See also news:c5jjd9$2elhn$1@ID-114100.news.uni-berlin.de .
>
>(Sorry, I don't know how best to refer to threads in groups-
>beta (spit). That's the message-id of the first article.)[/color]

Then use the "old" Google Groups. ;)

http://groups.google.com/groups?thre....uni-berlin.de

Interesting thread BTW.

Micha

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