[Typo3-dev] utf-8 standard in TYPO3 4.0?

[Dmitry Dulepov]

Hi!

So far I run version 3.7.0 and have five production sites in Latvian
language, all using utf-8 with lots of non-ascii characters. There are
some problems with indexed_search but I believe they are solved already
in 3.8.0. Otherwise I did not encounter any problems. All my tables are
converted to utf-8 using one extension from TER.

I am not sure if any part of the system make a search over database
entries. If yes, database must be aware of utf-8 (MySQL 3.x does not by
default) and database charset must match to the charset being used.
Right now this fact is ignored by typo3 (i.e. typo3 does not specify
character set for tables at all). I am not familar with DBAL but I
believe there can be problems with specifying charset for table because
it is database-specific thing.

As to system extensions, any extension that uses strstr, strpos, strchr
preg_* and ereg_* functions on the content can have problems with utf-8.
this should be a dedicated task to review extensions for utf-8
compatibility and provide new recommendations for extension developers
about safe handling utf-8.

I strongly believe that utf-8 MUST be default character set for the web
in general and and typo3 in particular. This has a lot of advantages
including much easier multilanguage setups.

Dmitry.

Robert Lemke wrote:
> Hi folks,
> 
> as was thinking about the roadmap for the upcoming 4.0 I was wondering how
> far the utf-8 support in TYPO3 really got.
> 
>    -  Does the core completely support utf-8 without any problems?
>    -  Which system extension has problems with utf-8?
>    -  What steps have to be taken to enable utf-8 by default in TYPO3 4.0?
> 
> Wouldn't it be great if utf-8 was enabled by default so you don't have to
> convert the whole content afterwards?
> 
> Someone willing to bring light into this topic?
> 
> Cheers,
> robert
>