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I converted my MySQL database and my perl scripts to UTF-8. And finally it worked, but it is somehow a crazy solution. That's what I did:

MYSQL DATABASE: Completely set to UTF8

PERL-SCRIPTS: Source code converted to UTF8 encoding. "use utf8;" at the top.

HTML-HEADERS:

  print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";

and

  &ltMETA CHARSET='UTF-8'>

DATABASE-CONNECTS:

  $dbh->{'mysql_enable_utf8'} = 1;

and

  "set names 'utf8';"

Now, everything works with cyrillic (russian) characters: input, output and processing in the database, fine. But the problem I have are German "Umlaute": äöü. They are not shown correctly in the browser. They work only if I put a cyrillic character in a comment next to the HTML element which does not show the character, e.g. something like this:

  &lt!-- Э -->

This is an awkward solutions, and I know that there has to be a solution without that. Does anybody know what could be missing. Thanks in advance for every answer!

UPDATE:

Thank you for you response. I figured out, that I have the problem even with the most simple HTML file. I use this source code:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use utf8;
print "Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8\n\n";
print <<END;
    <HTML>
        <HEAD>
            <META CHARSET='UTF-8'>
        </HEAD>
        <BODY>
            <H1>The Country Österreich</H1>
        </BODY>
    </HTML>
END

The result can be seen at: http://5mls.com/test_bad.cgi
As you can see, the "Ö" is not shown.
Now the code that works:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use utf8;
print "Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8\n\n";
print <<END;
    <HTML>
        <HEAD>
            <META CHARSET='UTF-8'>
        </HEAD>
        <BODY>
            <H1>The Country Österreich<!-- Э --></H1>
        </BODY>
    </HTML>
END

The result can be seen at: http://5mls.com/test_good.cgi
This time the "Ö" is shown correctly, because of the Russian character "Э" in the comment. Does anybody know, how the "Ö" could be shown without the Russian character?

user3809670
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    Send utf-8 in the header too: `print "Content-type: text/html charset=utf-8\n\n";` http header will be considered first. – VMai Jul 06 '14 at 14:21
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    You need to figure out where the problem is. 1) Do you have phpMyAdmin? If so, do you see the correct string in the database when using phpMyAdmin? I know that program reliably displays what's actually in the database. – ikegami Jul 06 '14 at 15:54
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    2) Do you correctly fecth the data from the database? Provide the output of `sprintf("U+%v04X", $str)` and what you expect that string to be. – ikegami Jul 06 '14 at 15:55
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    3) Do you correctly encode the output? If possible, use `wget` or `curl` to fetch the HTML page. Use a hex editor to examine the bytes of the string and provide those. – ikegami Jul 06 '14 at 15:56
  • I would look at the http headers first. – VMai Jul 06 '14 at 16:49
  • Thank you for your answers. I now use the header – user3809670 Jul 08 '14 at 15:16
  • I now use the header 
    print "Content-Type: text/html; charset=\"UTF-8\"\n\n";
    , but it does not change the problem. I know the data is correct in the database. I checked that with PUTTY. I can start MYSQL in PUTTY, everything is shown correctly there. And when I use my trick with the
    it completely works. Loading and saving UTF characters repeatedly does not change them. Only when I leave the weird comment away, the HTML page is not shown correctly.     – user3809670 Jul 08 '14 at 15:18

1 Answers1

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I also had issues using utf8 working with perl scripts and MySQL.

Check what your cgi script sends to the browser by using a web developer tool in your browser. Then try out encoding what perl sends to your browser by using the Encode Module:

use Encode qw(encode);

and encode your output:

my $austria = "<HTML>
    <HEAD>
        <META CHARSET='UTF-8'>
    </HEAD>
    <BODY>
        <H1>The Country Österreich</H1>
    </BODY>
</HTML>";
print encode('utf-8', $austria);

Besides, your test_bad.cgi script works for me and puts out the correct output in my browser.

polybios23
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