What ARE these things???

[AngelinaC]

Blast, i thought I was so clever editing some php files - it SEEMED easy, and I see what I went after - it brought the variable into the template and it shows up.

But on the two pages I've done this to, I get those characters in the subject field - see if they will show up right in this field:  Yes, they print right, can someone tell me what these are?

Me thinks I cannot walk upright as yet. Could someone assist me out of the slime? I'd like to walk upright!

[dhuelsmann]

Yes, "" is the Byte Order Mark (BOM) of the Unicode Standard. Specifically it is the hex bytes EF BB BF, which form the UTF-8 representation of the BOM, misinterpreted as ISO 8859/1 text instead of UTF-8.

Probably what it means is that you are using a text editor that is saving files in UTF-8 with the BOM, when it should be saving without the BOM. It could be PHP files that have the BOM, in which case they'd appear as literal text on your page. Or it could be translated text you pasted into Joomla! edit windows.

The Unicode Consortium's FAQ on the Byte Order Mark is at http://www.unicode.org/faq/utf_bom.html#BOM .

language file (not template or index or anything else:

change:

DEFINE('_ISO','charset=iso-8859-1');

to

Code: Select all

DEFINE('_ISO','charset=UTF-8');

and you should be ok

Leo

[AngelinaC]

Thank you, Leo!

I REALLY appreciate your help.

There are so many parts and pieces to learn from where I'm coming from, graphic background with two classes in java. No php training yet... I wasn't able to get the whole lamp deal installed on my computer, got the apache going but the php was a no go... so I flip back to my old junk - and I mean that in the worst way possible-the definition of the BIG BOX software - and I know it throws in unwanted code - but I've been using it to edit because it makes the code layout in pretty colors - whereas my "notepad" does not do that - so it's been quick to spot what I'm trying to edit.

well, I'll just be looking up how to fix what you said - I do more or less understand it, even if I'm not exactly sure how to change it.... but I'm one more flipper out of the mire, thanks to you!

[AngelinaC]

hummmm....

If I was a language file, where would I be?

In the language editor - it shows utf-8 - which I'd think was pulling the info from this elusive "language file"...

[dhuelsmann]

hummmm....

If I was a language file, where would I be?

In the language editor - it shows utf-8 - which I'd think was pulling the info from this elusive "language file"...

Depends on the version of Joomla you are using. For 1.0.x it is in language/english.php or whatever language you are using.

For 1.5.x (for English) look in the language/enGB/en-GB.com_user.ini file

[AngelinaC]

Thank you for the speedy reply!

I believe i found it, but it says as you suggested already:

Code: Select all

if (!defined('_ISO')) DEFINE('_ISO','charset=utf-8');
if (!defined('_DATE_FORMAT')) DEFINE('_DATE_FORMAT','l, F d Y');  //Uses PHP's DATE Command Format - Depreciated
/**
* Modify this line to reflect how you want the date to appear in your site

I only have microsoft web experessions as an editor, and though I like notepad, or something simple, I do like the feature that uses different colors so its easy to spot things in your code. If I download another editor, perhaps it will clear this up? I tried resaving with notepad in the utf-8 - no help - still get these ugly little things all over the page. My client should be ringing my phone any minute...

This is sort of like throwing the keys to your car to a two year old!

[dhuelsmann]

Apparantly MS Expressions Web sets the BOM

The second feature I would like to see if the ability to set whether or not a site uses the BOM or Byte Order Mark on web pages with UTF-8 encoding. While the BOM is considered the best way to make sure the browser knows the site uses UTF-8 encoding it causes problems with PHP and some web browsers. The ability to use Expression Web with PHP is important to many web designers and developers.

[dhuelsmann]

You might consider using TextPad http://www.textpad.com/

[AngelinaC]

Boffo! Well Done! I wished I had money, I'd send you some!

Thanks mucho! The textpad did it.