CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascripthtmlutf-8character-encoding
user114518
user114518

Reputation:

How do I keep my UTF-8 characters from becoming junk?

I'm creating a simple JavaScript multiple choice game. Here is a sample question:

p ∧ q ≡ q ∧ p by which rule?

When I run it on localhost, it works fine, it prints out those special characters. However, when I upload it to my school's server, it prints out garbage:

p ∨ q ≡ q ∨ p by which rule?

I have this at the top of my HTML:

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />

I can't use PHP in my assignment, or I'd use header('Content-Type: text/xml, charset=utf-8');

If you want, I can give a link... but I'd rather not because then everyone can see my really bad educational game...

How can I keep my UTF-8 characters?

Edit: I found out that if I Filezilla my files up to the server and download them from the server, the characters become little squares. I don't know if that's useful information.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 2762

Answers (3)

Jukka K. Korpela
Jukka K. Korpela

Reputation: 201538

If you cannot easily fix the HTTP headers, escape from the problem by using “character escapes.” If e.g. “∧” occurs in HTML content, use &#x2227; for it. If it occurs in a JavaScript string literal, use \u2227 for it.

To check out the codes for other characters, consult e.g. http://www.alanwood.net/unicode/mathematical_operators.html

Upvotes: 1

antiduh
antiduh

Reputation: 12407

Edit: I found out that if I Filezilla my files up to the server and download them from the server, the characters become little squares. I don't know if that's useful information.

Yes, filezilla is corrupting your files in transit. Make sure filezilla transfers your files as binary in order to make sure the text doesn't get corrupted in transit. If its transferring in ascii mode, it'll try to fix newlines and unrecognized characters.

Upvotes: 3

Jordan
Jordan

Reputation: 5425

Copying and pasting the questions into notepad or any other app that allows you to save as UTF-8 might work if that is a viable option.

I think you could also use a regex to identify the hex values and replace them with the corresponding value that would work in UTF8.

Also if you're using a specialized type of font this could cause the problem - are the questions stylized with a particular font? a set of fallbacks? you may need to do an @font-face import but I suspect there's another option...with the symbols you're trying to use it seems like LaTeX might be an option..I believe there are a few options out there for javascript, fonts, etc..

this article may also be useful: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/printerFriendly/articles/Unicode.html

Upvotes: 0

Related Questions