Delphi JQtouch Web Broker Demo Code not Behaving due to HTTP Response Content-Type charset

Question

I am implementing an application using Delphi XE2 Rest/JSON Server and jQTouch client. I have pretty much finished the server side and am now moving onto the client side development.

I have downloaded the jQTouch source and have set it up under IIS on port 8081 of my PC. This works fine.

But I need the static demo source to be accessible via a Delphi WebFileDispatcher. This is where I have the problem...

As a stripped down test/proof, I have set this up using the Web Broker / Web Server Application / Standalone VCL wizard, and dropped a WebFileDispatcher onto the Web Module. The only config has been to configure the 'Root' of the WebFileDispatcher to pick up the content.

Here's the problem reproduced in its most simple form:
I can access the content via IIS on port 8081.
I can access the content via Web Broker on port 8080.
Both using exactly the same localhost URL, just different ports.
So I know my paths and basic config are correct.

BUT... the 'Greater Than' or 'Right Arrows' on the jQTouch menu items are appearing as an 'a' with a circumflex when the content is server up from Web Broker. The green external link arrows are appearing with a Euro symbol on them.
The content appears without any problem when server up from IIS.

The problem appears to be the charset that is being appended to the content-type by code in the IdHTTPHeaderInfo unit. This unit is adding 'charset=8859-1' when the html and css files are UTF-8.

I can fix this by changing the MimeTypes defined in the WebFileExtensions property of the WebFileDispatcher to include charset=UTF-8. i.e. change the entry for 'text/html' to 'text/html; charset=UTF-8'.

But should this be required? I don't think so. I think that either: A) If Delphi includes a web server that is serving these files and its default is to assume all text files are 8859-1, then the mime types of the web dispatcher should be setup to override this to the correct value of UTF-8. B) Or the files should be checked for head meta tags for the actual encoding to be reported in the response. At the moment, neither of these seem to be the case.

Would anybody else class this as a bug that needs reporting? It has taken two days to narrow the problem down this far, and I wouldn't want anyone else to have to do this in the future.

See W3.org - Handling Character Encodings

To reproduce, just download the latest jQTouch release and map the content to a WebFileDispatcher.

Here are two images that show the problem:

![enter image description here][2]

enter image description here

Also, below are the Delphi files relating to the configuration of the Web Module..

Here is the PAS file...

unit WebModuleUnit1;

interface

uses System.SysUtils, System.Classes, Web.HTTPApp;

type
  TWebModule1 = class(TWebModule)
    WebFileDispatcher1: TWebFileDispatcher;
    procedure WebModule1DefaultHandlerAction(Sender: TObject;
      Request: TWebRequest; Response: TWebResponse; var Handled: Boolean);
  private
    { Private declarations }
  public
    { Public declarations }
  end;

var
  WebModuleClass: TComponentClass = TWebModule1;

implementation

{$R *.dfm}

procedure TWebModule1.WebModule1DefaultHandlerAction(Sender: TObject;
  Request: TWebRequest; Response: TWebResponse; var Handled: Boolean);
begin
  Response.Content := '<html><heading/><body>Web Server Application</body></html>';
end;

end.

And here is the dfm...

object WebModule1: TWebModule1
  OldCreateOrder = False
  Actions = <
    item
      Default = True
      Name = 'DefaultHandler'
      PathInfo = '/'
      OnAction = WebModule1DefaultHandlerAction
    end>
  Height = 230
  Width = 415
  object WebFileDispatcher1: TWebFileDispatcher
    WebFileExtensions = <
      item
        MimeType = 'text/css'
        Extensions = 'css'
      end
      item
        MimeType = 'text/html'
        Extensions = 'html;htm'
      end
      item
        MimeType = 'text/javascript'
        Extensions = 'js'
      end
      item
        MimeType = 'image/jpeg'
        Extensions = 'jpeg;jpg'
      end
      item
        MimeType = 'image/x-png'
        Extensions = 'png'
      end>
    WebDirectories = <
      item
        DirectoryAction = dirInclude
        DirectoryMask = '*'
      end
      item
        DirectoryAction = dirExclude
        DirectoryMask = '\templates\*'
      end>
    RootDirectory = 'C:\WebRoot'
    Left = 80
    Top = 64
  end
end

[2]:

Delphi JQtouch Web Broker Demo Code not Behaving due to HTTP Response Content-Type charset

0 Answers0